The rapid expansion of artificial intelligence infrastructure is no longer confined to established technology hubs. Data centers are spreading into new U.S. communities, bringing billions of dollars in infrastructure investment with them—and creating a new set of questions for housing markets, utilities and local governments.

According to Realtor.com’s latest analysis, the share of U.S. home sales taking place within five miles of a large data center—defined as a facility with at least 50 megawatts of capacity—has more than doubled since 2018. It rose from 0.67% to approximately 1.5% in 2026.

The reason is straightforward: there are simply many more large facilities.

The number of operating large data centers in the U.S. increased more than sevenfold, from 49 in 2018 to 347 in 2026. If facilities currently in the construction pipeline through 2027 come online as expected, Realtor.com estimates that nearly 2.3% of U.S. home sales could occur within five miles of a large data center.

The finding offers an important distinction in an increasingly infrastructure-heavy AI economy. Americans are not necessarily relocating toward data centers. Instead, data centers are increasingly being built in places where residential communities already exist.

The Geography of the AI Infrastructure Boom Is Changing

The location of new facilities is shifting noticeably.

In 2015, only 12 U.S. ZIP codes contained a large data center. By June 2026, that figure had reached 108 and was projected to reach 125 by the end of the year.

The newer facilities are also being built farther away from urban centers and in less densely populated areas. Realtor.com found that the typical large data center opening in 2026 is surrounded by approximately 70% fewer residential housing units per square mile than a comparable facility opening in 2017.

The 2027 construction pipeline points to another geographic shift. A typical facility scheduled to open next year is expected to sit roughly 34 miles from the nearest major city center, compared with 27 miles for 2026 facilities.

That evolution reflects the infrastructure requirements of modern AI workloads.

Large AI data centers require enormous amounts of electricity, land and cooling capacity. Finding suitable sites can therefore mean moving beyond established metropolitan technology clusters toward areas where land and power infrastructure are more readily available.

The economic profile of those locations is changing, too.

Between 2020 and 2023, ZIP codes receiving new large data centers generally had household incomes above the national median, with the gap reaching 24.7% in 2023 as hyperscale investment concentrated in relatively affluent areas such as Northern Virginia.

By 2026, however, ZIP codes receiving large data centers were 2.1% below the national median household income. The 2027 pipeline points to communities approximately 5.7% below the national median.

So Far, Home Values Have Not Moved Dramatically

One of the report’s more notable findings is what has not happened.

Realtor.com compared 43 ZIP codes that received large data centers between 2019 and 2025 with similar neighborhoods matched according to factors including pre-opening home prices and population density.

Two years after activation, home values in data-center neighborhoods generally tracked their matched comparison areas. The analysis found no statistically meaningful price premium or discount attributable to the arrival of a large facility.

Listing prices followed a similar trajectory, with a modest initial increase around facility openings that faded within two years.

That could challenge assumptions that data centers automatically damage nearby residential property values—or that infrastructure investment necessarily creates a housing premium.

The more interesting signal appeared in inventory.

Three years after a large data center opened, neighborhoods retained 66% of their pre-opening active listings, compared with 43% in matched areas without a data center. New construction also ran above the broader metropolitan average around facility openings before slipping somewhat below that benchmark in the third year.

The findings suggest that the relationship between data center development and housing markets is more complicated than a simple rise-or-fall effect on property values.

Power and Water Are Becoming the Bigger Questions

The housing implications may ultimately be less important than the infrastructure implications.

The average large data center that opened in 2018 consumed approximately 24 megawatts of power. By 2026, that figure had risen to around 60 megawatts, according to the Realtor.com analysis.

That increase matters because AI data centers are fundamentally different from many earlier generations of computing facilities. Training and running increasingly sophisticated AI models requires high-density computing infrastructure, which in turn demands substantial electricity and cooling capacity.

The resulting pressure is being felt by utilities and local communities.

Water availability is becoming particularly sensitive in parts of the Sun Belt, while higher electricity demand associated with data center expansion has generated concerns about utility costs in states including Georgia and Virginia.

The issue has also reached the technology industry itself. In March 2026, seven major AI companies signed a voluntary Ratepayer Protection Pledge committing to cover costs associated with new power supply and grid infrastructure rather than shift those expenses onto residential customers. The initiative has since expanded to companies representing approximately 80% of U.S. power delivery, according to the report.

What This Means for Enterprise AI

For enterprise technology companies, the data center story is ultimately about the physical infrastructure supporting the AI economy.

Cloud platforms, AI model providers and enterprises deploying large-scale AI workloads increasingly depend on facilities capable of delivering substantial computing capacity around the clock. Companies such as Microsoft, Amazon and Google are part of a broader ecosystem driving demand for hyperscale infrastructure.

That demand is reshaping where technology infrastructure gets built.

The next challenge is whether communities receiving these facilities have sufficient resources to evaluate their long-term economic, environmental and infrastructure consequences.

For now, the housing data provides some reassurance. But as facilities become larger and move farther into communities with less experience managing major industrial infrastructure, historical housing-market performance may not be enough to predict what comes next.

Market Landscape

The U.S. data center market is entering a new phase driven by AI computing demand rather than traditional cloud expansion alone. Facilities are becoming larger, more power-intensive and geographically dispersed.

That creates a three-way infrastructure challenge involving AI capacity, electricity availability and community development.

The housing market has so far shown limited evidence of major property-value disruption following data center openings. Yet the changing location of new facilities introduces new variables, particularly in communities with lower population density and fewer resources for evaluating large infrastructure projects.

For enterprise AI providers, cloud companies and data center operators, access to reliable power is increasingly becoming as strategically important as access to land and fiber connectivity.

Strategic Outlook

The next stage of America's AI infrastructure buildout could shift the data center debate from Silicon Valley and established technology corridors to smaller communities across the country.

That makes local planning, grid investment, water management and transparent cost allocation increasingly important. The industry's ability to demonstrate that new AI infrastructure can expand without disproportionately burdening nearby households could influence both public acceptance and future development.

The Realtor.com findings suggest that housing prices alone will not capture the full impact. Inventory, construction, tax policy, utility costs and community resources may prove equally important as AI infrastructure becomes a more visible part of the American physical landscape.

Top Insights

• Large data centers are reaching more U.S. housing markets because developers are expanding geographically, not because Americans are relocating toward AI infrastructure.
• New facilities are increasingly larger, farther from major cities and located in lower-income communities, changing the local policy challenge around AI infrastructure.
• Realtor.com found no meaningful home-value impact following data center openings studied through 2025, challenging assumptions about automatic property-market disruption.
• Rising electricity and water requirements could become more consequential than housing prices as AI data centers place increasing pressure on local infrastructure.
• Enterprise AI growth is turning power availability into a strategic technology constraint, potentially reshaping where cloud and AI infrastructure gets built.

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