ATTOM today released its second-quarter 2024 report analyzing qualified low-income opportunity zones targeted by Congress for economic redevelopment in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017.
ATTOM looked at 3,904 zones around the U.S. with sufficient data to analyze, meaning they had at least five home sales in the second quarter of 2024. 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.
The report revealed that median prices for single-family homes and condos rose from Q1 2024 to Q2 2024 in 61% of opportunity zones nationwide with sufficient data. Annually, prices increased in 62% of the zones examined. During the nationwide price surge of the Spring home-buying season, median prices in nearly half of the analyzed zones surged by over 10% both quarterly and annually.
The second-quarter price spikes were mixed, raising fortunes more so in higher-priced opportunity zones while benefiting fewer of the very lowest-priced neighborhoods. By a few measures, opportunity zones' price trends even showed signs of doing somewhat better than the nation as a whole during Q2 2024. For example, increases in median home values outpaced national gains in a slightly larger portion of zones than elsewhere.
Median values in 45% of opportunity zones went up from the first to the second quarter of this year by more than the 9% annual gain nationwide. The same was true in slightly less - 41%- of local housing markets outside the zones.
On the contrary, median prices were up quarterly and annually in only about 45% of opportunity zones where homes commonly sold for less than $125,000 during the second quarter of 2024. Prices climbed during that time frame in 60% to 66% of zones with higher home values.
"The trickle-down impact of the extended housing market boom across the U.S. continues to uplift many neighborhoods in need, revealing their economic potential,” said Rob Barber, CEO of ATTOM. “This pattern is especially evident in opportunity zones as house hunters priced out of more expensive areas turn to places they can afford. While gains inside these zones vary, many are experiencing price increases, demonstrating the momentum necessary to attract the investments that the opportunity zone model is designed to generate."
Median prices of single-family homes and condos increased from the first to the second quarter of 2024 in 1,932 (61%) of the opportunity zones around the U.S. with sufficient data to analyze, while staying the same or decreasing in 39% of these zones. Measured annually, median prices remained up from the second quarter of 2023 to the same period this year in 2,140 (62%) of those zones.
Among states that had at least 25 opportunity zones with enough data to analyze during the second quarter of 2024, the largest portions of zones where median prices increased quarterly were in Massachusetts (medians up from the first to the second quarter of 2024 in 73% of zones), Maryland (68%), and Oregon (68%).
States where median home values in opportunity zones remained up most often year over year included New Jersey (median prices up annually in 81% of zones), Nevada (79%), and Ohio (73%).
Of the 3,904 zones in the report, 1,148 (29%) had median prices below $150,000 in the second quarter of 2024. That was down from 34% of zones with sufficient data a year earlier and almost 60% five years ago. Another 647 zones (17%) had medians in the second quarter of this year ranging from $150,000 to $199,999.
The Midwest continued in the second quarter of 2024 to have larger portions of the lowest-priced opportunity zone tracts. Median home prices were less than $175,000 in 61% of zones in the Midwest, followed by the Northeast (41%), the South (39%), and the West (5%).
