Opportunity Zone home prices trail national growth

 ATTOM has released its second-quarter 2025 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 3,838 zones around the United States with sufficient data to analyze, meaning they had at least five home sales in the second quarter of 2025.

The report found that median single-family home and condo prices increased from the first to the second quarter of 2025 in 57 percent of Opportunity Zones around the country with enough data to measure.

About half of Opportunity Zone census tracts, 50.5 percent, saw median home values rise compared to the same time last year. That was a smaller share than the rest of the country: Home values rose in 56 percent of census tracts outside of Opportunity Zones.

As the country as a whole saw record-high home prices in the second quarter of 2025, about 8.4 percent of Opportunity Zones experienced their highest median prices since at least 2008. And 39 percent of Opportunity Zones with sufficient data to analyze saw median property values rise by 10 percent or more annually. 

However, price growth was slowest in Opportunity Zones that had the lowest median home sales prices while prices rose in similar shares of Opportunity Zone census tracts in the mid- and high-priced zones.

“Home values in most Opportunity Zones continue to move in step with the broader market—a pattern we’ve tracked since we began studying this segment,” said Rob Barber, CEO of ATTOM. “Drill down, though, and volatility persists, especially in the lowest-priced neighborhoods. Limited inventory nationwide is still driving prices higher and nudging marginal buyers toward areas with deeper economic challenges.”

Barber added, “Even with that upward pressure, a significant share of Opportunity Zone markets are trailing the nation in year-over-year price gains, reminding us that the recovery remains uneven and that some communities have a longer road ahead.”

Opportunity Zones are defined in the Tax Act legislation as census tracts in or alongside low-income neighborhoods that meet various criteria for redevelopment in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and U.S. territories. Census tracts, as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau, cover areas that have 1,200 to 8,000 residents, with an average of about 4,000 people.

While the gap between census tracts in and outside of Opportunity zones is relatively modest when it comes to how likely they were to experience price growth in the second quarter of 2025, the actual sticker prices of homes in these areas still tends to be much lower. In the second quarter, 79.9 percent of Opportunity Zone census tracts posted median home prices below the national median of $369,000.

About half of Opportunity Zone census tracts (49.6 percent) had median home prices under $225,000.

Considerable price volatility also continued inside Opportunity Zones.  The median home price rose or fell by more than 5 percent year-over-year in 73 percent of the Opportunity Zone census tracts in ATTOM’s analysis.  That likely reflected small numbers of sales in many zones.

Major findings from the report: 

• Median prices of single-family homes and condos rose from the first to the second quarter of 2025 in 57.3 percent (1,813) of the 3,162 Opportunity Zone census tracts with sufficient data to analyze in both quarters. Year-over-year, median values rose in 50.5 percent (1,938) of the 3,432 Opportunity Zone census tracts with sufficient data. 

• Home prices rose annually in a smaller share (50.5 percent) of Opportunity Zone census tracts compared to the 56 percent of tracts located outside the zones that saw median prices increase. 

• A larger share of Opportunity Zones tracts saw median prices grow by 10 percent or more annually: 39 percent of tracts inside the zones compared to 32 percent of tracts outside the zones. 

• The areas with the lowest home values saw the most sluggish growth, with only 39 percent (289) of the 742 Opportunity Zone census tracts where median sales prices were below $125,000 seeing any increase in prices year-over-year. 

• The Midwest saw the strongest growth among its Opportunity Zones. Among states with at least 25 Opportunity Zones that had sufficient data to analyze in the second quarter of 2025, Wisconsin had the highest share where median home prices grew year-over-year (medians up from the second quarter of 2024 to the second quarter of 2025 in 68 percent of zones), followed by Indiana (65 percent), Iowa (65 percent), Michigan (64 percent), and Missouri (59 percent). 

• Home prices in most Opportunity Zones are well below those outside of them. About half of Opportunity Zone census tracts had median home prices below $225,000 in the second quarter of 2025 while the national median home price was $369,000. 

• The majority (54 percent) of Midwestern Opportunity Zone census tracts had median home prices below $175,000, compared to the Northeast (38 percent), the South (36 percent), and the West (6 percent).