HOME PRICES GREW YEAR-OVER-YEAR IN NEARLY HALF OF OPPORTUNITY ZONES

Median home prices rose annually in 44.6 percent of Opportunity Zone census tracts; Nearly 31 percent of Opportunity Zone census tracts saw double-digit home price growth in first quarter.

IRVINE, Calif., May 19, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- ATTOM, the leading provider of property data, AI-powered analytics, and real estate intelligence solutions, today released its first-quarter 2026 report analyzing qualified low-income Opportunity Zones targeted by Congress for economic redevelopment in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (see full methodology below). In this report, ATTOM looked at 3,403 census tracts in Opportunity Zones around the United States with sufficient data to analyze, meaning they had at least five home sales in the first quarter of the year.

The analysis shows that median single-family home and condo prices rose quarter-over-quarter in 42.7 percent (1,452) of the Opportunity Zone census tracts, and rose year-over-year in 44.6 percent (1,518) of the tracts.

In the first quarter, just under 10 percent (332) of the analyzed tracts posted their highest median home sales prices since the beginning of the Great Recession in 2008 and 30.8 percent (1,047) saw median home prices grow by at least 10 percent year-over-year.

Among census tracts that did not fall in Opportunity Zones, 47.2 percent saw median home prices increase compared to the same time last year, meaning that tracts inside the zones were slightly less likely to experience price growth than those outside the zones.

"In recent quarters, home values inside these targeted investment zones have been growing at roughly the same rate as the rest of the country," said Rob Barber, CEO of ATTOM. "That's a good sign, since these areas, which have historically been under-invested in, can be bellwethers for changes in the broader housing market's trajectory."

While the share of tracts that experienced price growth inside and outside the zones are similar, home values inside Opportunity Zones tend to be significantly lower. The national median home sale price in the first quarter of 2026 was $360,000. Only 21.1 percent of tracts inside the zones had median home values at or exceeding the national median compared to 49.4 percent of tracts outside the zones.

Due to the small number of sales in many Opportunity Zones, median price measurements can be volatile. The typical median sales prices rose or fell by more than 5 percent in 70.6 percent of the 3,403 tracts analyzed.

Major findings from the report:

• Median single-family home and condo prices rose quarter-over-quarter in 42.7 percent (1,452) of the Opportunity Zone census tracts, and rose year-over-year in 44.6 (1,518) percent of the tracts.
• Outside of Opportunity Zones, home prices rose quarter-over-quarter in 45.1 percent (24,260) of the 53,825 census tracts with sufficient data to analyze and rose year-over-year 47.2 percent (25,426) of those tracts.
• A greater share of census tracts inside opportunity zones (30.8 percent) experienced double-digit home price growth year-over-year, compared to census tracts outside opportunity zones (28.6 percent).
• Among states with at least 25 Opportunity Zone census tracts with sufficient data to analyze, Arkansas and Minnesota had the greatest share that experienced year-over-year price growth (59 percent of Opportunity Zone census tracts each), followed by Ohio (56 percent), Michigan (54 percent), and Missouri (53 percent).
• Only 21.1 percent of tracts inside Opportunity Zones had median home values at or exceeding the national median.

Conclusion

ATTOM's first quarter 2026 Opportunity Zones report shows that the zones are experiencing home price growth at a slightly slower, but very similar, rate as the rest of the country. While the share of census tracts inside the zones experiencing any growth is lower, a higher share (30.8 percent) of tracts inside the zones saw double digit price growth compared to tracts outside the zones.

Report methodology
The ATTOM Opportunity Zones analysis is based on home sales price data derived from recorded sales deeds. Statistics for previous quarters are revised when each new report is issued as more deed data becomes available. ATTOM's analysis compared median home prices in census tracts designated as Opportunity Zones by the Internal Revenue Service. Except where noted, tracts were used for the analysis if they had at least five sales in the first quarter of 2026. Median household income data for tracts and counties comes from surveys taken by the U.S. Census Bureau (www.census.gov) from 2020through 2024. The list of designated Qualified Opportunity Zones is located at U.S. Department of the Treasury. Regions are based on designations by the Census Bureau. Hawaii and Alaska, which the bureau designates as part of the Pacific region, were included in the West region for this report.

About ATTOM
ATTOM delivers AI-driven property intelligence built on one of the nation's most trusted property data assets, covering 160 million U.S. properties—99% of the population. Our engineered, multi-sourced real estate data spans property tax, deeds, mortgages, foreclosure, environmental risk, property conditions, natural hazards, neighborhood insights, and geospatial boundaries, rigorously validated for advanced analytics. ATTOM supports analytics and AI-driven applications through flexible delivery options including APIs, bulk licensing, cloud delivery, and the MCP Server for AI-powered, agentic access to engineered property data—enabling organizations to automate analysis and scale property intelligence across industries.

Media Contact:
Megan Hunt
[email protected]

Data and Report Licensing:
949.502.8313
[email protected]

SOURCE ATTOM