The median age for first-time homebuyers in the United States just reached a record high of 40 years old. And if nothing changes, that means, at age 21, I’m about halfway to homeownership.
Right now, it takes the typical American household about seven years to save for a down payment — roughly double the pre-pandemic timeline. Property taxes have also risen nationally, by over 30% since 2019. Together, these factors have created housing affordability anxiety among young Americans. Many states are looking to cut costs but are struggling to find a way to do so without jeopardizing funding toward municipal resources and public education.
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“Owning a home marks one’s progression into adulthood, starting a family, and building wealth,” says Scott Galloway, marketing professor at New York University Stern School of Business. “But for many Americans, the American dream has become a hallucination.”
RECLAIMING AFFORDABILITY: A HOUSING AGENDA THAT WILL MOVE WOMEN FORWARD
One unlikely industry is emerging as a powerful tool to alleviate the property tax barrier to homeownership: data centers.
Data centers are facilities that house computer systems and other critical digital infrastructure used to process, store, and transmit information. They serve as the backbone of the internet, storing data from TikTok to high-level government systems.
A data center’s size depends on its purpose. The four most common data center types include on-site, colocation facilities, hyperscale, and edge data centers, ranging in size from a single room to several football fields.
The rise of data centers and the scramble to power them has been portrayed as a drain on U.S. resources. In reality, their benefits are multidimensional, and they could be crucial to addressing skyrocketing property taxes.
Despite concerns over environmental impact and landowner rights, data centers are driving innovation and offering opportunities for state and local economic growth.
Loudoun County, Virginia, is home to the world’s largest concentration of data centers and processing infrastructure, even outpacing major international hubs in China. The area serves as a data center success story.
With over 200 data centers built, the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors reported that the real property tax rate was lowered from $1.145 in tax year 2016 to $0.805 per $100 of assessed value in 2025. On the average home cost of $462,206, that’s a savings of about $1,572. A significant amount that can be used toward home improvements, groceries, or a vacation.
Because the county is bringing in a lot of money from data centers, it doesn’t need to charge homeowners as much in property taxes. The board reported that for every dollar Loudoun County provides to data centers, the county receives $26 in tax revenue. The centers also provide 12,000 jobs in the county, generating further revenue and employment growth.
Data center opposition groups have forecasted spiking electricity costs for communities with new centers, but a 2025 Axios report showed that consumer costs grew by only 3% in Virginia, while the rest of the nation saw a 6.5% increase. The rise has a significantly smaller financial impact on taxpayers than the property tax relief homeowners receive.
Additionally, Virginia’s State Corporation Commission has put protections in place by creating a separate electricity rate class for large users like data centers and requiring them to pay minimum long-term demand charges. This helps shield ordinary homeowners from bearing the full burden of grid expansion.
As AI and tech firms expand across the country, data centers will no longer be concentrated in a single county. Demand for local centers will also rise. Goldman Sachs estimates that overall power consumption from data centers will increase 175% by 2030.
Other states seeking property tax relief should follow suit to be competitive for data center development.
Startups find Texas attractive for its business-friendly regulations, relative geographic stability, and its access to critical power grids with ease of transportation through an intricate highway system.
Northern and central time zone states could also have an especially attractive pull, thanks to lower cooling costs from their natural climates and lower disaster risks.
States can attract data center startups by investing in grid upgrades ahead of development, coordinating with local governments, universities, and supply-chain partners to build AI ecosystems, and enacting automatic sales tax exemptions for software, servers, and equipment.
Struggling small towns often offer attractive land for large data centers and can greatly benefit from smart financing planning. State lawmakers can work with these communities by supporting infrastructure development and overseeing proper zoning regulations.
As of January 2026, the U.S. leads the world with 3,778 data centers, accounting for over 40% of the global total. Many of them are concentrated in Virginia, Texas, and Ohio. If pro-business states want the economic benefits Loudoun County has seen, they need to move quickly to enact smart policy reforms.
CITIES ARE PRICING OUT THE ONE DEMOGRAPHIC THAT COULD SAVE THEM
Millennials and Generation Z feel locked out of what used to be a normal doorway into adulthood.
Homeownership has become a distant financial milestone for many. If states want young Americans to build wealth, start families, and put down roots before 40, welcoming data centers — and the prosperity they bring to a region — may be one of the smartest first steps.
Katherine Mickelson is a student media fellow at the Network of Enlightened Women. She studies political science and public relations at Baylor University and works on Rep. Dusty Johnson’s campaign for governor of South Dakota.
