Nearly 500 active property listings on U.S. multiple listing services now mention data centers, up 49.1 percent from 320 a year ago, according to a new analysis by Compass International Holdings. That rise is driven in large part by a jump in land listings, particularly in Texas, according to the brokerage.
On Tuesday, though, voters in dozens of communities nationwide made clear they don’t want a data center next door.
Ballotpedia counted 28 local ballot measures on Nov. 3 that would limit data center development if approved, and 13 that would facilitate it. Early results lean heavily one way. Voters in at least 29 jurisdictions passed bans or restrictions on data centers, according to The Washington Post.
A separate tracker, Data Centers on the Ballot, counted 37 restrictive measures passed and six more leading as of Wednesday morning, with just one — in Harwood, North Dakota — voted down.
Those two data points describe the same tension. Some sellers, especially landowners, are increasingly marketing property on its data center potential. Meanwhile, the communities where that potential would be realized are voting to shut it down.
Ground zero: Ohio
Ohio was the center of the fight. Ohio residents across 18 municipalities voted on 21 data center ballot measures. As of Wednesday morning, at least 19 of the ballot measures passed bans or other restrictions, according to Data Centers on the Ballot.
The state has a lot at stake. Ohio has more than 200 operational data centers and ranks fifth among states in data center projects. Companies plan to invest up to $40 billion in AI infrastructure there by 2030, according to state data.
Resistance was widespread before Tuesday. Local governments had adopted more than 125 data center moratoriums as of September, according to the Ohio Capital Journal.
The most common form was a citizen-led charter amendment capping facilities at 25 megawatts, which effectively bans hyperscale campuses while leaving smaller facilities alone. Nine Ohio communities voted on versions of it.
The margins weren’t close. Trenton’s ban passed with nearly 80 percent of the vote.
Data center anger drove voters
Fifty-six percent of voters told CNBC’s Voter Poll that data centers were a crucial or major factor in their vote Tuesday. Candidates who ran against the AI data center buildout did well.
In Texas, Democrat Gina Hinojosa unseated Gov. Greg Abbott in a major upset after calling for a moratorium on new data centers until lawmakers pass stronger protections. She blamed Abbott for the state’s rapid data center buildout, even after he paused some approvals in August.
In Georgia, Keisha Lance Bottoms beat Republican Rick Jackson in another major upset on a pledge to temporarily pause new data center construction statewide. Hinojosa will be Texas’ first Democratic governor since 1995, and Bottoms flips Georgia’s governor’s office for the first time in 24 years.
The Senate results looked similar. Sherrod Brown beat Ohio Sen. Jon Husted after spending millions on ads calling him “the face of data centers in Ohio,” Time reported.
In Michigan, Abdul El-Sayed won on a promise of no utility rate hikes, arguing that data centers should pay for their own energy demand. His Republican opponent, Mike Rogers, also backed a data center moratorium, but polls showed voters trusted El-Sayed more on the issue.
In Texas, James Talarico beat Ken Paxton by tapping the same anger, which CNBC reported extended to Republican voters frustrated with data center projects going up near them.
Data centers hit the MLS
The Compass International Holdings data shows how quickly data centers have worked their way into listing remarks.
Jonah Coste
The analysis looked at listings active on U.S. MLSs on Oct. 13, 2026, that mentioned “data center” or “datacenter,” compared with the same date in 2025. It found 477 such listings. That’s a tiny share of the roughly 2 million active listings nationwide, but the number is climbing fast.
Texas leads by a wide margin, with 192 listings mentioning data centers, up 69.9 percent from 113 a year earlier. Arizona is a distant second at 34, followed by Georgia (22), Iowa (19) and Ohio (15).
Land drives the trend. Land listings make up nearly two-thirds (65 percent) of the listings that mention data centers. Single-family homes account for 17 percent and rentals for 6.1 percent.
“Some landowners are looking to cash in on the AI boom by marketing their properties to data center developers,” said Jonah Coste, an economist at Compass International Holdings. “But for owners of single-family homes and other residential properties, proximity to data centers is often perceived as more of a drawback than a selling point. Concerns about noise and rising electricity costs may make them less likely to highlight a nearby data center in their listings.”
Selling point or red flag?
Compass’ report notes that sellers mention data centers in listings in several ways. They may market them as land for data center development, as proximity to data centers and economic growth, or as opportunities to house data center employees.
Rick Doak
The report says that, in rarer cases, sellers phrase data centers negatively in listings. For example, in a single-family home listing in Evans City, Pennsylvania, the seller says, “The home is not located in a flood zone and is nowhere near the proposed data center.”
About 2 in 5 Americans (38 percent) live within five miles of at least one operational data center, according to the Pew Research Center. Compass’ report notes that many sellers, especially owners of single-family homes, are likely concerned about their proximity to data centers and don’t mention them in listings because they’re worried it would be a detractor.
“Data centers are likely here to stay, but there are serious open questions about how they impact local communities,” said Rick Doak, a land specialist at Compass Ranch and Land in Texas. “People are worried about water usage, air quality, property values, the destruction of rural roads and the effect on neighboring ranches. Since many data centers are being built in 18-24 months, there are also questions about how long the economic growth and job opportunities will last.”
Tuesday’s election results, which swung hard against data center development, could further affect how they’re handled in listings, especially for land sellers seeking to capitalize.
A land parcel marketed to a hyperscaler is priced on that buyer’s ability to build. A 25-megawatt cap or a voter-approval requirement removes that buyer, or at least adds a political risk that has to be priced in.
Before the vote, Bisnow reported that the midterm elections put at least $100 billion of proposed data center projects in the crosshairs, after at least $68 billion of investments were halted or blocked in the second quarter alone.
NIMBY’s new target
Housing could end up on either side of this wave of voter anger.
Ken Wingert
Ken Wingert, chief advocacy officer at the National Association of Home Builders, told Inman before the election that he sees a shift in local opposition.
In his words, “the NIMBY focus has shifted from housing to data centers.” He added that the pressure has pushed local officials to talk about the need for more affordable and workforce housing.
That’s the optimistic read: Homebuilders get breathing room, while data centers absorb the opposition.
The less optimistic read is that the tools voters used Tuesday aren’t specific to data centers. Charter amendments, referendum requirements and voter approval for large projects can target any development.
The housing crisis has gotten loud enough to drown out NIMBYism in some places, and a growing number of states and cities are moving to override it. Local resistance to new housing development hasn’t gone away, though.
Wingert also downplayed the land-competition argument Inman has explored in earlier coverage. He said many of the areas targeted for data centers aren’t places builders would put housing, and that labor competition is the larger issue.
Takeaways for agents
For real estate agents, the practical takeaway is that “data center potential” in a listing may not be an upside, if it ever was. As Compass’ report notes, many sellers may handle data centers in listings by simply not mentioning them.
Agents representing land sellers will need to know about any new local moratoriums before adding the phrase to listings. Agents representing homebuyers near proposed sites also have a new question: Will the local data center project still exist, or will the wave of NIMBY opposition stop it?
