Median single-family home and condo prices rose quarter-over-quarter in 42.7% (1,452) of the Opportunity Zone census tracts and increased year-over-year in 44.6% (1,518) of the tracts, according to property data provider ATTOM’s first quarter 2026 report analyzing low-income Opportunity Zones targeted by Congress for economic redevelopment in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017.
“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.”
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 company said.
According to the Internal Revenue Service, Census Opportunity Zones are economically distressed communities in which new investments are eligible for preferential tax incentives under the federal tax code. They were created to spur economic growth and job creation.
Roll Over and Defer Capital Gains
These zones allow investors to roll over and defer capital gains into community projects and local businesses.
In the first quarter, just under 10% (332) of the analyzed tracts posted their highest median home sales prices since the beginning of the Great Recession in 2008 and 30.8% (1,047) saw median home prices grow by at least 10% year-over-year, the analysis noted.
Among census tracts that did not fall in Opportunity Zones, 47.2% saw median home prices rise compared to the same time last year, ATTOM noted. That mean that tracts inside the zones were less likely to experience price growth than those outside the zones.
ATTOM noted that 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. It said 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.
Because of the small number of sales in many Opportunity Zones, median price measurements can be volatile, ATTOM noted. The typical median sales prices rose or fell by more than 5% in 70.6% of the 3,403 tracts analyzed.
