The Other Side of the Property Line: A Real Estate Perspective on Data Centers

A few years ago, I don't remember having many conversations about data centers. Today, they're showing up everywhere—in conversations about economic development, utilities, land use, water, artificial intelligence and, increasingly, real estate. I don't think that's going to change anytime soon.

The reality is that almost everything we do digitally has to exist somewhere physically. Every cloud-based system, online transaction, streaming service, AI application, digital photograph and business platform depends on physical infrastructure that most of us rarely think about. Data centers are a big part of that infrastructure, and as our dependence on technology continues to grow, our need for them will grow too.

Because of that, I'm not particularly interested in arguing about whether we should simply have data centers or not. I think that question is too simplistic. We live in a digital economy, and that economy requires enormous physical infrastructure to support it. The conversation I'm much more interested in is how we welcome that infrastructure and the economic development that comes with it without forgetting about the people who already live in the communities where it is being built.

I think that's where real estate professionals have an important perspective to offer. Whenever a major new use comes into a community, we naturally think about the property being developed, but we should also be thinking about what happens on the other side of the property line.

I Don't Think This Has to Be an Either-Or Conversation

As a member of the Greater Tulsa Association of REALTORS®, I've been paying particular attention to how our industry is approaching this issue. GTAR's position recognizes data centers as critical infrastructure that supports economic development, digital connectivity and modern commerce, while also supporting balanced local policies that protect nearby residential uses, housing affordability and quality of life. GTAR also supports coordination with utilities to make sure there is adequate power, water and broadband capacity without shifting the costs of that growth onto residential ratepayers, as well as reasonable standards addressing things like noise, vibration, lighting and building design.

That balance makes a lot of sense to me because public conversations like this have a tendency to become unnecessarily binary. We sometimes act as though you have to be for growth or against it, supportive of development or opposed to it, excited about technology or afraid of it. Real life, and certainly real estate, usually requires more nuance than that. We can recognize that data centers are increasingly necessary infrastructure and still ask thoughtful questions about how they're being developed. We can welcome investment and still ask who is paying for the infrastructure it requires. We can support economic development and still care about the homeowner who already lives next door.

I don't see those as conflicting positions. I think that's what responsible growth looks like.

Where Real Estate and Environmental Policy Meet

There's probably another reason this particular issue interests me more than most. Although I've spent more than 25 years in real estate, my education actually began in a very different place. I have a bachelor's degree in Environmental Policy and a master's degree in Environmental Science, so questions about development, natural resources, infrastructure and the way public policy balances competing interests have always been interesting to me. I don't work as an environmental scientist, and I'm certainly not suggesting that makes me an expert on data centers, but that background does influence the questions I tend to ask. I naturally want to know not only what we're building and what economic opportunity it may create, but what resources it requires, how it fits into the surrounding community and what the long-term consequences of today's decisions might be. In many ways, I've found that my environmental education and my real estate career lead me to the same place: good development requires us to think beyond the boundaries of one piece of property.

Real Estate Teaches You to Look Beyond the Property Line

One thing you learn pretty quickly in real estate is that the value and enjoyment of a property are influenced by a lot of things the owner doesn't control. A beautiful house can sit beside an undesirable land use. A quiet piece of acreage can change dramatically when the surrounding area develops. Roads, schools, utilities, commercial development and zoning decisions can all change the character of an area over time. That's why good real estate professionals learn to look beyond the house itself. We want to know what's around it, what may be planned nearby, how the area is changing and what could reasonably happen on the surrounding land.

Data centers belong in that conversation because they can be very large developments with substantial infrastructure requirements. Depending on the project, we may be talking about significant electrical demand, water use, broadband infrastructure, roads, construction activity and the relationship between a large facility and the properties surrounding it.

I think it's important to understand that looking carefully at those issues doesn't make someone anti-development. It simply means we're thinking about development in the context of the entire community rather than only the property being developed.

Infrastructure Costs Don't Just Disappear

The utility question may be one of the most important parts of this conversation because large data centers can require enormous amounts of electricity. Meeting that demand may require new generation, substations, transmission infrastructure or other utility investments, and those things obviously aren't free.

Oklahoma lawmakers addressed that issue in 2026 with the Data Center Customer Ratepayer Protection Act. The legislation essentially establishes a cost-causation principle: customers responsible for creating utility costs should bear their equitable share of those costs rather than allowing those costs to be unfairly shifted to other customers.

I think that's an important principle. Economic development should create economic opportunity, but it shouldn't quietly send part of its infrastructure bill to the family living three miles away.

The same kind of thoughtful planning should apply to water and other infrastructure. Different data centers can use different technologies and have very different resource requirements, which is why I don't think broad statements about what “a data center” uses are especially helpful. We need to understand the actual project being proposed.

Where will its water come from? What is the capacity of the local system? What additional infrastructure will be necessary? What happens during periods of peak demand or drought? Who will be responsible for paying for the improvements that are needed?

Those questions aren't anti-business. They're the kinds of questions good business people ask. If we're talking about sustainable economic development, we should understand what it takes to sustain it.

We Can't Forget About the Person Next Door

This is probably the part of the conversation where my real estate perspective influences me most.

Imagine that you purchased a home on acreage because you wanted space and quiet. Maybe you planned to raise your children there, or maybe this was the property where you imagined eventually retiring. Then the neighboring property becomes the site of a very large development.

Even if that project creates economic benefits for the broader community, I think it's perfectly reasonable for that homeowner to care about what happens to the experience of living on their own property. They may want to know what they'll hear and see, whether there will be additional lighting at night, what construction will look like and whether noise or vibration could affect nearby residential uses. Those concerns shouldn't automatically stop a project, but I don't think they should automatically be dismissed either.

Good planning recognizes that two legitimate interests can exist at the same time. A company can have a legitimate interest in developing property for an allowable use, while a neighboring homeowner can have a legitimate interest in the reasonable enjoyment of a property they may have owned for decades. The real question is how well we can allow those interests to coexist.

Thoughtful setbacks, landscaping, visual buffers and reasonable standards addressing noise, vibration and lighting can all be part of that solution. I think building design belongs in the conversation too. The exterior of a massive facility doesn't suddenly become irrelevant just because what's happening inside the building is technological.

None of those considerations prevent a data center from functioning as a data center. They simply recognize that the facility is becoming part of an existing community and should be planned accordingly.

We Need to Be Careful When We Talk About Property Values

Whenever a major development is announced, one of the first questions homeowners understandably ask is what it will do to their property values. As real estate professionals, I think we need to be particularly disciplined about how we answer that.

We shouldn't scare homeowners with predictions we can't support, but we also shouldn't dismiss legitimate concerns simply because we don't yet have enough information to quantify an effect. Real estate values are influenced by many variables, and the impact of a particular development may depend on its location, distance from residential property, visibility, surrounding land uses, infrastructure improvements, design and many other factors.

Sometimes the most professional answer we can give is that we simply don't know yet, and then we keep paying attention.

We can study sales as projects are developed. We can watch buyer behavior and listen to the questions consumers begin asking. We can see whether proximity becomes an objection or whether new infrastructure and economic investment create benefits in the surrounding market.

Real estate professionals sit unusually close to that kind of information because we hear what buyers say when they're standing in a backyard. We hear what sellers worry about before listing their homes. We know when something that may sound insignificant in a planning meeting becomes very significant to the person deciding whether to purchase a property.

That doesn't make us city planners, engineers, economists or utility experts, and I think good, humble professionals are comfortable knowing where their expertise ends. But it does give us a perspective that belongs in community conversations about land use.

Transparency Makes Better Conversations Possible

I also think uncertainty creates a lot of unnecessary fear around development. People understandably become suspicious when they feel major decisions are being made around them without enough information about what is actually being proposed.

That doesn't mean every resident will agree with every project if we simply explain it well enough. Some disagreements are legitimate and won't disappear. Developers may not be able to resolve every concern, and local governments will sometimes have to balance competing interests.

But there's a meaningful difference between disagreement and distrust.

Those conversations tend to go much better when people have reliable information early enough to participate meaningfully. How large will the project be? What are its utility requirements? What protections are planned for surrounding properties? What infrastructure improvements will be required, and who will pay for them? What standards will apply once construction is complete?

Good development doesn't require everyone to agree. I do think healthy communities should have processes that allow legitimate questions to be asked and answered before decisions become problems that everyone is trying to solve afterward.

Good Growth Should Still Be A Good Ten Years From Now

Economic development announcements naturally focus on the beginning of a project. We talk about the investment coming into the community, construction, jobs and potential tax revenue, and all of those things are important. Real estate has taught me, though, to think farther down the road.

I'm interested in what the area looks like ten years later. Did the infrastructure investment strengthen the community? Did residential utility customers benefit from increased capacity, or did they end up carrying costs they didn't create? Did surrounding neighborhoods remain desirable? Did local government establish thoughtful standards that made future development easier to manage, or is every new project creating another fight?

Most importantly, did the development ultimately become a productive part of the community, or did it become a permanent source of conflict with the people living around it? Those aren't questions we can answer at a ribbon cutting, but I think they're exactly the questions we should be asking when we're considering development at this scale.

Why Real Estate Professionals Should Be Paying Attention

So why am I writing about data centers on a real estate blog?

Because I think professional real estate agents should understand more than houses. We should understand communities and pay attention to infrastructure, development patterns, zoning, utilities, employment, transportation and the decisions that may shape the places where our clients are investing hundreds of thousands—or millions—of dollars.

That doesn't mean we need to become experts in every subject. It means we should stay curious enough to recognize when something happening outside our traditional lane could materially affect the people we serve, and then be willing to learn enough to have an intelligent conversation about it.

I also think that when the subject is complicated, our responsibility as professionals is to resist the temptation to immediately choose a side and stop thinking.

At REMAX Results, that's the kind of professional conversation I want us having. I'm less interested in asking whether data centers are simply good or bad than I am in asking what responsible development should look like.

As a REALTOR®, I think the framework GTAR has put forward gives us a good place to start. We can recognize that this infrastructure is important and allow our communities to benefit from economic development while still protecting residential uses, housing affordability and quality of life. We can plan responsibly for power, water and broadband capacity without unfairly shifting the costs of that growth onto residential ratepayers. We can also establish reasonable standards for the things neighboring property owners will actually experience, including noise, vibration, lighting and the appearance of the development itself.

None of that requires us to fear growth. It simply asks us to be thoughtful about how we grow. Ultimately, I don't think economic development is successful just because something gets built. The better measurement comes later, when we can look back and ask whether we created opportunity, strengthened infrastructure, protected the people who were already invested in the community and made thoughtful decisions before problems appeared instead of waiting until afterward.

I want Oklahoma to be a place where important new industries want to invest, and I also want it to remain a place where people want to live, buy homes, raise families and invest for their own futures. I don't believe we should have to choose between those two things. I think the smartest communities will be the ones that learn how to grow without losing sight of what made people want to live there in the first place.