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Message
Big Tech Is Buying Up America’s Land—and Home Builders Can’t Compete
Posted on 2/18/26 at 2:31 pm
Posted on 2/18/26 at 2:31 pm
quote:
PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY, Va.— Steve Alloy was preparing to develop 516 new homes in Bristow, Va., about five years ago when the home builder began noticing something odd. Much of the land surrounding his site wasn’t being acquired by housing developers. It was being snapped up by tech giants such as Microsoft and Google.
A few miles away, a housing development called Village Place had the rights to build an additional 250 housing units, but the owner sold the land to a data-center developer for $31 million. Data-center developer NTT later paid $257 million for another vacant acreage.
Land brokers started calling Alloy’s company, too.
quote:
By November of last year, the home builder was ready to cash in on the AI boom. Amazon.com, which wanted to build data centers, agreed to pay $700 million for a portion of the land Stanley Martin had acquired several years ago for just over $50 million. It was one of the biggest deals for vacant land ever.
The rapid growth of artificial intelligence and the surge in construction of the large data centers it requires are emerging as another potential contributor to America’s housing shortage. Landowners and developers are finding that selling parcels to data-center developers can be far more profitable than any other use of the land. Local zoning can make it easier and faster to build data centers than housing.
quote:
At the same time, the region suffers from a housing shortage of more than 75,000 homes, according to the Virginia Association of Realtors.
quote:
Similar dynamics are at work in other data-center hotbeds. In 2024, Stream Data Centers purchased and then knocked down an entire 55-home subdivision in Elk Grove Village, Ill., a data-center hub near Chicago, to build three data centers totaling 2.1 million square feet. The company paid nearly $1 million per house.
quote:
In Texas, prices for land along U.S. Route 67 near Dallas, which three years ago sold for between $20,000 to $40,000 an acre, have jumped to more than $350,000 an acre in some places, said Scott Finfer, a residential land developer there. For home builders, he said, “there’s no possible way you can make those numbers work.”
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Posted on 2/18/26 at 2:34 pm to ragincajun03
The government will respond to this by doing something like increasing property taxes on everyone except the tech companies. Everyone will cheer themselves for “doing something” that actually did nothing except hurt regular folks
Posted on 2/18/26 at 2:35 pm to ragincajun03
My grandpa used to say "Land, because you can't make more of it"
Posted on 2/18/26 at 2:36 pm to ragincajun03
There's a land acquisition race going on right now. Between the data centers themselves and the energy generation needed to sustain them it's hitting a lot of areas at the same time. I'm blown away by some of the $/acre prices that are getting thrown around out in west texas right now. We're having to seriously consider offloading a couple pieces of useless land because the offers are hitting the point where it would be finically irresponsible not to seriously consider it.
Posted on 2/18/26 at 2:37 pm to billjamin
Good. We need to get AI going to displace woke white collar workers and woke Hollywood. This is how we win.
Posted on 2/18/26 at 2:51 pm to ragincajun03
quote:
In Texas, prices for land along U.S. Route 67 near Dallas, which three years ago sold for between $20,000 to $40,000 an acre, have jumped to more than $350,000 an acre
Damn. My in-laws sold about 100 acres right on 67 a couple of years ago.
Posted on 2/18/26 at 3:19 pm to ragincajun03
Developers and tech companies won’t rest until every square inch of land is covered in concrete
This guy is becoming more relevant daily
This guy is becoming more relevant daily
Posted on 2/18/26 at 3:25 pm to ragincajun03
quote:
Texas, prices for land along U.S. Route 67 near Dallas, which three years ago sold for between $20,000 to $40,000 an acre, have jumped to more than $350,000 an acre in some places
Yep. I live near 67, and am in equipment rental sales, along 67 has been a pretty decent money maker for me.
Posted on 2/18/26 at 3:50 pm to upgrayedd
Uncle Ted did nothing wrong.
Posted on 2/18/26 at 3:52 pm to NIH
quote:
We need to get AI going to displace woke white collar workers and woke Hollywood
While we cheer on from our 200 sq ft flats all crowded in suburban ghettos.
#winning
Posted on 2/18/26 at 4:04 pm to billjamin
quote:
I'm blown away by some of the $/acre prices that are getting thrown around out in west texas right now.
That per acre price point was already getting stupid in West Texas, especially Loving, Reeves and Winkler Counties for SURFACE ONLY with water companies buying land and using the surface rights as leverage to "entice" O&G operators to do business with them.
Now with the data centers, pop-up mobile phone gas stations and snack machines, sand mines...it's beyond stupid for land out in the desert that lacks almost any real fresh water.
Posted on 2/18/26 at 4:05 pm to NIH
quote:
Good. We need to get AI going to displace woke white collar workers and woke Hollywood. This is how we win.
Are you trying to replace El Gaucho?
Posted on 2/18/26 at 4:07 pm to ragincajun03
Bill Gates has been buying rural land for years and years now. A large chunk in Louisiana
Posted on 2/18/26 at 4:20 pm to ragincajun03
Just mirroring a lot of the retards on here
Posted on 2/18/26 at 4:45 pm to Bayou_Tiger_225
quote:
Bill Gates has been buying rural land for years and years now. A large chunk in Louisiana
His largest chunk of land at >70K acres. I think he originally wanted bug farms but may now use it for AI server farms.
Posted on 2/18/26 at 4:47 pm to ragincajun03
quote:
That per acre price point was already getting stupid in West Texas, especially Loving, Reeves and Winkler Counties for SURFACE ONLY with water companies buying land and using the surface rights as leverage to "entice" O&G operators to do business with them.
I remember those days doing water deals with Skeet. I don't miss his shitty burgers and having to pretend like i liked them.
Posted on 2/18/26 at 5:25 pm to billjamin
quote:
I remember those days doing water deals with Skeet. I don't miss his shitty burgers and having to pretend like i liked them.
Been there, done that. The whole wild cattle thing was interesting. Little did the Feds know...it's impossible to find an impartial jury of 12 in that county, ESPECIALLY when Skeet is the defendant.
Posted on 2/18/26 at 5:29 pm to ragincajun03
Once these data centers become obsolete they will be repurposed as massive crime-riddled projects similar to what we saw in the Karl Urban Dredd movie
Posted on 2/18/26 at 5:31 pm to ragincajun03
quote:
it's beyond stupid for land out in the desert that lacks almost any real fresh water.
I’m still trying to figure out where the water is coming from to run these centers and power plants around Amarillo they’ve broken ground on.
Posted on 2/18/26 at 5:34 pm to ManBearTiger
Are they having the land rezoned for commercial versus residential or agricultural? Zoning laws can control some of this at the city and county level, right?
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