Data Centers Are Moving Closer to Homes. What Does That Mean for You?

Data centers probably were not on your list of things to weigh when buying or selling a home. Where you work, how close family is, the commute, sure. A warehouse full of computer servers down the road, probably not. But that is changing fast, including here in the Kansas City area, and buyers and homeowners are starting to ask what a nearby one means for everything from home values to utility bills. The honest answer has more nuance than simply good or bad.

They Are Showing Up in a Lot More Places

According to Realtor.com, back in 2015 only about a dozen ZIP codes had a large data center. By the first half of 2026, that number had climbed past 100, and it is projected to keep rising through the end of the year (see graph below):

That is a dramatic jump in just over a decade, and HousingWire notes much of the growth is concentrated in particular regions. The Kansas City metro, with its power capacity, strong connectivity, and central location, has been one of the areas drawing this kind of development, which is why it is worth understanding rather than ignoring.

Does a Nearby Data Center Hurt Home Values?

So far, there is no evidence that it automatically does. Researchers compared communities that have large data centers with similar communities that do not. As HousingWire reports, home values in data-center ZIP codes "generally tracked their matched communities," with "no statistically meaningful gains or losses," and only "a modest initial increase" in listing prices around openings. In other words, historically, simply having a data center nearby has not been enough to send values dramatically higher or lower. That does not mean every property reacts the same way, though. Proximity, the surrounding development, and the specific facility can all matter for an individual home.

The Real Tradeoffs To Weigh

Like any major development coming to town, a data center brings benefits alongside drawbacks. On the plus side, these projects can expand the local tax base, create construction and operations jobs, and sometimes fund nearby infrastructure. On the other side, they can mean construction traffic and noise, real questions about local power and water demand, and the simple visual reality of a very large building. How much any of that touches a particular home depends heavily on how close it sits and what lies between the two.

What This Means in Kansas City

As these projects land in the Kansas City metro's growing suburbs and exurbs, they are becoming a genuine part of the local buying and selling conversation. The national finding that a data center does not automatically swing values is reassuring, but it is still a national average. What actually matters for your home is the specific facility near it: how far away it is, what buffers it, what stage of construction it is in, and what is approved or proposed for the surrounding land. Those are local questions, and they are exactly the kind a national headline cannot answer for your street.

If You Are Buying or Selling

If you are buying, find out what is already there and what is approved or proposed nearby. Weigh the facility's proximity, potential noise, the future development around it, and whether utility costs are something you want to build into your budget. If you are selling, do not assume a nearby data center automatically hurts your value, because the data does not support that. But expect that buyers will have questions, and knowing the facts about the facility, its construction timeline, noise, and future plans lets you address concerns head-on rather than leaving a buyer's imagination to fill the gap.

How To Find Out What Is Coming

The good news is that this is knowable information, not a mystery. Large projects like these move through public channels well before a single wall goes up. County and city planning and zoning records show what has been approved or is up for a hearing, proposed rezonings and special-use permits often signal a facility long before construction starts, and local news tends to cover the bigger developments early. A buyer who checks those sources, or works with someone who does it as a matter of routine, can spot a planned data center on a nearby parcel while there is still time to factor it into the decision. That is a very different position from discovering the earthmovers a month after closing.

The Bottom Line

As more data centers appear, they are becoming one more piece of the puzzle that buyers and homeowners need to understand, and the Kansas City area is squarely in that trend. The reassuring news is that a nearby facility does not automatically move a home's value. The important news is that the details are local and specific. At Munkel Real Estate Solutions, the work is cutting through the national headline to tell you what a particular data center, at a particular distance, actually means for a particular Kansas City home, so you can weigh it clearly instead of guessing.

Sources: Realtor.com and HousingWire.