Want to Buy an Affordable Home? Go to an Opportunity Zone
Home values inside the zones remain quite low compared to the rest of the US.
Median single-family home and condominium prices increased from the first quarter of 2020 to the first quarter of 2021 in 75% of Opportunity Zones, according to ATTOM Data Solutions.
In addition, median home prices increased in 54% of the zones from Q4 2020 to Q1 2021. By comparison, median prices rose annually in 78% of census tracts outside of Opportunity Zones and quarterly in 55 percent of them.
Additionally, ATTOM found that median home prices rose by at least 10% year-over-year in close to two-thirds of Opportunity Zones. ATTOM said these trends closely followed patterns happening outside of Opportunity Zones. By comparison, home prices also rose that much during that time period in 58% of other census tracts throughout the country.
In the report, ATTOM analyzed 4,579 zones around the US with sufficient sales data to analyze, which means they had at least five home sales in the first quarter of 2021.
Despite these increases, prices in Opportunity Zones continue to trail the national average in Q1 2021. Forty-three percent of zones with enough data still had median prices of less than $150,000, down 50% Q1 2020.
Median prices rose at least 25% in 37% of Opportunity Zones from Q1 2020 to Q1 2021, while they only rose by that much in 28% of census tracts elsewhere in the country.
Arizona (median prices up, year over year, in 84% of zones), Idaho (83%), Oregon (83%), Nevada (82%) and Michigan (82%) were the states with the largest percentage of Opportunity Zones where median prices rose, year over year.
Forty-three percent of the Opportunity Zones in the report had a median price in Q1 2021 that was less than $150,000, while 17% had medians ranging from $150,000 to $199,999. In Q1, median values ranged from $200,000 to $299,999 in 21% of Opportunity Zones, while they were at least $300,000 or more in 19%.
“Home values inside the zones remain quite low compared to the rest of the US. But they are far from immune from the boom,” said Todd Teta, chief product officer with ATTOM Data Solutions, in a prepared statement. “That shows continued interest among home buyers in marginal areas and continues to bode well for the redevelopment that Opportunity Zone tax breaks are designed to promote.”