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How This Affects You

Property values, electricity bills, water rates, noise, tax burden, and jobs — what the research says about living near a data center.

Published April 10, 2026

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Property values

In 2023, Prince William County, Virginia commissioned an independent study from engineering firm Kimley-Horn to assess the effects of data centers on nearby communities. The study found that industrial-scale data centers adjacent to residential subdivisions can reduce nearby residential property values by 5–15%, driven primarily by noise, visual impact, and perceived loss of community character.[1]

In Loudoun County, Virginia — the largest data center market in the world — the county's Department of Finance found that residential properties within one mile of large data centers experienced 2–10% lower appreciation rates compared to similar homes farther away.[2] In Chandler, Arizona, residents near Meta and Google campuses reported difficulty selling homes due to constant construction noise and industrial aesthetics.[3]

5–15% reduction in nearby residential property values — the consistent finding across every major data center market studied, from Virginia to Arizona.

No peer-reviewed Texas-specific study exists yet for Hays County, but the pattern is consistent across every major data center market studied to date.

Electricity bills

When data centers cluster in a region, the cost of building the transmission infrastructure to serve them often flows through to residential ratepayers. In Georgia, Georgia Power filed to raise residential electric rates by 12% in 2024, largely to fund grid upgrades driven by data center demand. Commissioner Tim Echols publicly stated: "Data centers are driving the need for new generation, and residential customers shouldn't foot the bill."[4]

In Virginia, Dominion Energy requested a roughly 10% rate increase for residential customers in 2023, citing the need for new transmission infrastructure to serve Northern Virginia data centers.[5]

Texas faces a unique risk because ERCOT operates a deregulated wholesale market. When demand spikes — as it does during summer heat waves — wholesale prices can surge to the $9,000/MWh cap. Additional large loads from data centers reduce reserve margins, increasing the frequency and severity of price spikes that flow directly into residential bills, especially for customers on variable-rate plans.[6]

Water supply and rates

A 2021 study published in Environmental Research Letters estimated that a single 15-megawatt data center using evaporative cooling in a hot climate consumes approximately 130 million gallons of water per year — comparable to the annual water use of roughly 1,100 average U.S. households.[7] At larger scales, the numbers are staggering: Google's global data centers consumed 6.1 billion gallons of water in 2023,[8] while Microsoft used 6.4 billion gallons — a 22% increase from the prior year.[9]

130 million gallons per year — water consumed by a single 15 MW data center using evaporative cooling in a hot climate. That's equivalent to the annual water use of roughly 1,100 average households.

For Hays County, the stakes are existential. The 2022 Texas State Water Plan projects that Hays County's water demand will exceed supply by 2040 under drought-of-record conditions — and that projection does not include major new industrial users like data centers.[10] Any facility drawing from local sources would compete directly with residential and agricultural users during the Stage 3 drought restrictions already in effect.

Noise pollution

Data centers operate thousands of industrial fans, chillers, and backup generators around the clock. Measured noise levels at facility boundaries typically range from 55–75 dB(A), with some facilities exceeding 80 dB(A) during peak cooling or generator testing.[11] For comparison, the World Health Organization recommends that nighttime outdoor noise remain below 40 dB(A) to prevent sleep disturbance.[12]

In Chandler, Arizona, residents near a CyrusOne facility documented sustained noise levels of 60–70 dB(A) at distances of 500–1,000 feet.[13] Prince William County, Virginia subsequently enacted a 50 dB(A) nighttime noise limit at residential property lines for data centers[14] — an acknowledgment that unregulated facilities cause real harm.

Chronic exposure to low-frequency noise at these levels is associated with sleep disruption, elevated cortisol levels, increased cardiovascular risk, and impaired cognitive function in children.[15]

Tax burden shift

Data centers receive some of the most generous tax incentives of any industry. Virginia's data center sales tax exemption alone costs the state an estimated $750 million–$1 billion per year in foregone revenue.[16]

In Texas, the Chapter 328 program (which replaced Chapter 313 in 2023) offers property tax value limitations that can reduce a data center's taxable value by 50–90% for qualifying investments. When a data center pays a fraction of its fair share in property taxes, the lost revenue must be made up by other taxpayers — homeowners — or through cuts to schools, roads, and emergency services.[17]

An investigation by the Austin American-Statesman found that mega-deals in Central Texas systematically shift the tax burden from large corporations to residential property owners.[18] Meanwhile, a 2024 analysis from Loudoun County found that data centers generate far less revenue per acre than other commercial uses (office, retail, mixed-use) while consuming disproportionate infrastructure resources.[19]

Jobs — fewer than you think

A large data center (30–60 MW) typically employs only 30–50 permanent full-time workers after construction is complete, making data centers one of the lowest job-per-acre and job-per-dollar industrial uses in existence.[20]

$6–10 million per permanent job — Google's $600M Midlothian, Texas data center employs ~60–100 permanent staff. By comparison, typical manufacturing plants receiving similar incentives create 500–2,000 permanent jobs.

Google's data center in Midlothian, Texas (Ellis County) required a $600 million investment but employs approximately 60–100 permanent staff — roughly $6–10 million per permanent job.[21] Meta's $800 million facility in Temple, Texas was projected to create just 100 permanent jobs.[22] By comparison, typical manufacturing plants receiving similar-scale incentives create 500–2,000 permanent jobs per facility.[23]

Grid reliability

The North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) flagged the ERCOT region as at "elevated risk" for energy emergencies in its 2024 Long-Term Reliability Assessment, citing data center growth as a key demand driver.[24] ERCOT itself reported that over 60 GW of new large-load interconnection requests were pending — nearly half of its total installed generation capacity.[25]

Hays County sits within ERCOT's South-Central load zone. Any major data center load added here competes with residential air conditioning demand during summer peaks — the exact conditions that caused rolling blackouts during Winter Storm Uri (2021) and summer 2023 heat events.

Air quality

Large data centers maintain dozens of diesel backup generators, each 2–3 MW, for emergency power. These generators are tested regularly and run during grid outages. In Loudoun County, data centers collectively hold permits for over 1,000 diesel generators, with aggregate NOx and PM2.5 emissions that rival a small power plant.[26]

Particulate matter and nitrogen oxides from diesel generators are linked to respiratory disease, cardiovascular disease, and premature death. The American Lung Association rates the San Antonio–Austin air corridor — which includes Hays County — as having degrading air quality trends.[27]

References

  1. ^ Kimley-Horn & Associates, "Data Center Community Impact Assessment," prepared for Prince William County, VA, 2023.
  2. ^ Loudoun County Board of Supervisors, Finance Committee briefing materials on data center land use impacts, 2019.
  3. ^ Tony Davis, "Data centers are the new neighbors nobody wants," Arizona Daily Star, 2023.
  4. ^ Georgia Public Service Commission, Docket No. 44160, Georgia Power Company 2024 Rate Case. See also Stanley Dunlap, "Georgia Power rate hike driven by data center boom," Georgia Recorder, January 2024.
  5. ^ Virginia State Corporation Commission, Case No. PUR-2023-00066, Dominion Energy Virginia rate application, 2023.
  6. ^ Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts, "Texas Energy: The Next Chapter," 2023. See also ERCOT, "Report on the Capacity, Demand, and Reserves in the ERCOT Region," 2023.
  7. ^ Siddik, M.A., Shehabi, A., & Marston, L., "The environmental footprint of data centers in the United States," Environmental Research Letters, Vol. 16, No. 6, 2021.
  8. ^ Google, "2024 Environmental Report," published July 2024.
  9. ^ Microsoft, "2023 Environmental Sustainability Report," 2024.
  10. ^ Texas Water Development Board, "2022 State Water Plan — Water for Texas," 2022.
  11. ^ Wall, J., "Noise Impact Assessment of Data Centre Developments," Acoustics Bulletin (Institute of Acoustics, UK), 2020.
  12. ^ World Health Organization, "Night Noise Guidelines for Europe," 2009.
  13. ^ Ryan Randazzo, "Chandler residents say data center noise is unbearable," Arizona Republic, 2022.
  14. ^ Prince William County Board of Supervisors, Zoning Ordinance Amendment, 2023. Covered by Michael Pope, "Prince William County cracks down on data center noise," WAMU/NPR, 2023.
  15. ^ Basner, M., et al., "Auditory and non-auditory effects of noise on health," The Lancet, Vol. 383, No. 9925, pp. 1325–1332, 2014.
  16. ^ Virginia Department of Taxation, "Tax Expenditure Report," 2023. See also Jared Walczak, Tax Foundation, "Data Center Tax Incentives," 2022.
  17. ^ Texas Tax Code, Chapter 328; Legislative Budget Board fiscal analysis, 2023.
  18. ^ Asher Price, "Central Texas mega-deals shift costs to homeowners," Austin American-Statesman, 2023.
  19. ^ Loudoun County Finance Department, "Comparative Revenue Analysis by Land Use Type," 2024.
  20. ^ Bureau of Labor Statistics, Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages. See also Good Jobs First, "Megadeals Database."
  21. ^ Google, "Data Center Economic Impact Reports," 2022; Ellis County records.
  22. ^ Meta, announcement press release, 2022; Temple Economic Development Corporation records.
  23. ^ Timothy Bartik, "Who Benefits from Economic Development Incentives?" W.E. Upjohn Institute, 2018.
  24. ^ North American Electric Reliability Corporation, "2024 Long-Term Reliability Assessment," December 2024.
  25. ^ ERCOT, "Report on Existing and Potential Electric System Constraints and Needs," 2024. See also Dan Cohan, "Texas' power grid is not ready for the AI boom," Houston Chronicle, 2024.
  26. ^ Piedmont Environmental Council, "Data Centers and Air Quality in Loudoun County," 2023.
  27. ^ American Lung Association, "State of the Air" reports, 2023 and 2024.
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