Data Centers and Your Property Value: what the GMU study found, what Mansfield residents say

What the GMU study actually found

In August 2025, the George Mason University Center for Regional Analysis published Data Centers and 2023 Home Sales in Northern Virginia, prepared by CRA Director Terry Clower and Schar School Assistant Director Keith Waters. The study mapped data-center locations across Fairfax, Loudoun, and Prince William counties — the densest cluster in the world — and analyzed thousands of 2023 home sales against distance from those facilities.

The headline finding: after controlling for 13 other factors that affect home prices, proximity to data centers was correlated with higher sales prices, not lower. The relationship held for single-family homes, townhomes, and condos. The study's regression model accounted for 87% of the variance in home prices observed in Northern Virginia in 2023, which the researchers describe as a “strong model.”

Why? The researchers' interpretation, supported by the data: data centers are sited in places that already have strong infrastructure — good roads, reliable utilities, easy airport and job access, fiber connectivity. Those infrastructure advantages make the surrounding area more desirable to buyers. Data centers themselves are visually unobtrusive (windowless, low-rise, often screened) and produce no smoke, no large truck traffic during operation, and limited daily disruption beyond the cooling-tower hum. The negatives don't outweigh the positives in the market data, at least at the regional scale.

The catch: regional vs. property-line

The GMU study is the first peer-reviewed work on this question and is honestly conducted — but the lead researchers have flagged its limits. Director Clower told the Fredericksburg Advance: “You should always be careful what the data says, and what it doesn't.” Northern Virginia is a different residential market with sustained pent-up demand that may mask negative effects. The study aggregates across regions, not the immediate property-line effect at a specific subdivision next to a specific data center.

That's where the Mansfield and Prince William cases matter.

The Mansfield, Georgia case

In Mansfield, Georgia, a Meta data center sited near Newton County's Great Oaks subdivision in 2023 generated noise complaints serious enough to draw national press coverage. Residents within a half-mile reported the cooling-tower hum was audible inside homes with windows closed. Some residents have publicly stated they are exploring moving. Independent property-line noise measurements at Great Oaks have registered 60–65 dBA — well above the typical municipal nighttime residential standard.

Mansfield's experience appears to be the strongest counter-example to the GMU study. The mechanism: while regional housing values may rise, specific homes within a quarter to half-mile of an operating cooling-tower-cooled data center may sell more slowly, attract fewer buyers, and ultimately discount.

The Prince William, Virginia case

Prince William County is so dense with data centers that residents have organized formal opposition since 2022. The county updated its noise ordinance to 55 dBA at the property line in 2024, then extended that limit to all 24 hours of the day in February 2026. Citizen-organized data tracking has documented quality-of-life impacts including:

• Persistent backyard noise impeding outdoor use.
• Light pollution from continuous security lighting.
• Increased local construction traffic during build phases.
• Concerns about water and electricity infrastructure costs being passed to residents.

The Prince William resident experience is the strongest practical guide to what residents in Ohio's hyperscale clusters — especially Hilliard / Cosgray Road (Franklin County), New Albany / Licking County, and Trenton (Butler County) — can expect over the next 5 to 10 years.

Ohio realtor perspective: New Albany

For New Albany, Licking County, Sotheby's International Realty agent Lori Kemper Andre, who lives in the area, has stated that demand and property values have surged in the past five years as Meta, Google, Amazon, and now Microsoft and Cologix expanded their facilities. Kemper Andre attributes this to the educated workforce being drawn from larger, more expensive markets — the same infrastructure-and-jobs effect the GMU study identified.

This is consistent with what's happened in Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission's modeling of Licking County: the data-center cluster there is also adjacent to Intel's $20 billion semiconductor fab, creating a compound jobs-and-tech-infrastructure effect that is genuinely raising area home values.

What this means for your specific Ohio property

The honest answer depends on three factors:

1. Distance to facility. If you are within 1/4 mile of an operating cooling-tower-cooled data center, the Mansfield comparable suggests potential downward pressure on your specific home, even if regional values are rising. If you are more than 1/2 mile away with intervening buffer, the GMU study's regional finding is more relevant: positive correlation.
2. Cooling design. An air-cooled facility (Project Mila spec) produces less continuous noise than a cooling-tower facility. Diesel-generator testing schedules also vary. Your specific neighbor matters more than the existence of a data center generally.
3. Surrounding economic context. If the data center anchors a job-and-tech cluster (New Albany / Hilliard) the regional positive may dominate. If the data center sits alone in a small rural community (Mt. Orab, Sidney) without surrounding jobs growth, the negative quality-of-life effects may dominate.

Questions a buyer should ask

Texas broker Eric Bramlett's framework, widely cited in 2025 real-estate coverage, is the practical buyer checklist:

• How close is the home to backup generators and cooling equipment?
• What does the building and fencing look like from the yard or street?
• What landscaping, fencing, or berms are planned or installed?
• Where will trucks enter and exit during construction and operation?
• What's the noise specification at the property line, and is there a specific decibel commitment in the development agreement?
• What are the plans for cooling-tower water use and discharge?

The Loudoun tax-revenue effect

One factor that genuinely raises area property values: data centers generate large local tax revenue, which can lower property taxes elsewhere. Loudoun County's data centers contributed about $890 million annually to a $940 million county operating budget — allowing the county to maintain Northern Virginia's lowest real-property tax rate (about 25% below neighboring counties) and fund 36 new schools and significant road improvements over 15 years.

For Ohio's smaller hosting communities, this effect depends entirely on the development agreement. Sidney's Project Galaxy grants a 30-year, 100% real-property tax abatement to Amazon, meaning residents will see none of the tax-revenue effect during the abatement period (only $50 million in PILOT over 15 years — far less than the $180–$350 million in foregone tax revenue). Microsoft's choice in Heath and Hebron to decline real-estate abatements is the opposite model and benefits Lakewood Local School District directly.

Bottom line

If you are buying or selling within 1/2 mile of an Ohio data center: read the development agreement, check the cooling design, document baseline noise, and assume your specific home's value will be more sensitive to the data center than the regional average. If you are 1+ mile away: the GMU regional finding likely applies, and the data center is one of several infrastructure factors affecting your value.

The single biggest variable for any Ohio resident is whether the local municipality requires noise studies, sound walls, traffic mitigation, and meaningful tax-revenue capture — or whether the data center was permitted under emergency ordinance with NDA-shielded terms. The latter, unfortunately, is the dominant Ohio pattern as of 2026.

• George Mason University CRA — Data Centers and 2023 Home Sales in Northern Virginia (Clower, Waters, August 2025)
• Schar School of Policy and Government — Study summary, November 2025
• Fredericksburg Advance — Digital Insights: Home Values and Proximity to Data Centers
• The Reynolds Team / BrightMLS — Northern Virginia data on data-center adjacent sales
• Yahoo / AOL — Lori Kemper Andre Sotheby's Realty New Albany interview
• Prince William County Comprehensive Plan — Digital Gateway Zone, 55 dBA all-day limit
• LandApp — Loudoun County tax revenue analysis

• Data center water usage in Ohio — aquifer impact, OEPA NPDES rules, Marysville case
• Data centers and your Ohio electric bill — AEP’s 85% tariff, PJM capacity, BTCR riders
• Data center noise in Ohio — cooling-tower hum, generator testing, decibel limits
• Is there a data center near my home? — how to check your Ohio county
• Data center health risks in Ohio — diesel emissions, fuel cells, air quality