Data center developers are paying “impossible prices” for land and outbidding homebuilders, leaving them to face a “losing battle” just as the U.S. housing market is short of millions of affordable homes, according to a new report.
The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), which represents more than 140,000 members among homebuilders, residential developers and remodelers, published research on its website that mentions examples of data center developers outbidding homebuilders.
In the “data center alley” of northern Virginia, home to more than 300 data centers, developers are paying “impossible prices” to secure land, NAHB said. One of the biggest land deals closed in the area since 2024 involved SDC Capital, which paid $615 million for 97 acres on the south side of Cochran Mill Road immediately north of the Washington and Old Dominion Trail in Loudoun County, amounting to about $6.3 million per acre…