As new data centers proliferate, more Americans are living near one than ever before. 

The share of US home sales within 5 miles of a large data center has more than doubled since 2018, reaching 1.5% so far this year. Based on in-progress projects through 2027, that percentage is likely to hit 2.3% next year, according to a Realtor.com analysis of property records and data provided by data center research firm Aterio. 

The growth is almost entirely explained by data centers expanding into new neighborhoods, not neighborhoods near data centers seeing more sales activity. Communities near the facilities have seen buying and selling activity similar to that of their broader metropolitan areas, the report found. 

Proximity to a data center also doesn’t seem to be affecting home values. Homes located near one fell or rose in value in line with regional trends. In some communities, listing prices saw a small increase after a data center first opened, but normalized within two years. 

Data center construction has faced growing bipartisan skepticism in many communities as technology companies rush to build them to expand their artificial intelligence capabilities. Many homeowners oppose new data center construction over concerns about the facilities’ electricity and water usage, noise, and aesthetics. 

A recent Redfin survey found that 53% of Americans opposed data center construction near them. Dozens of state and local governments, including New York and Texas, have enacted temporary moratoriums on new data center projects. 

The latest data center projects are increasingly being built in lower-income areas with fewer nearby homes, a reversal from the early 2020s, when technology companies concentrated construction in wealthy, suburban parts of Northern Virginia.

A typical data center scheduled to open next year will sit 34 miles away from a city center and be in a community with a median income 5.7% below the national median, the report found. In the early 2020s, the typical newly constructed facility was 23 miles from the city, and in a neighborhood with a median income as much as 24.7% higher than the national median. 

“Our analysis so far offers some reassurance: in the communities we studied, a new data center opening nearby wasn’t associated with meaningfully higher or lower home values than similar neighborhoods that didn’t get one,” Danielle Hale, chief economist at Realtor.com, said in a statement.

“But the facilities coming online next are bigger, more remote and landing in communities with less experience managing an industrial neighbor, so that track record may not hold as a guide to what comes next.”