Nearly half of Opportunity Zones established by Congress saw median home prices rise more than the national increase of 8.3 percent during the third quarter of 2019, according to a report by ATTOM Data Solutions.
Congress established the Opportunity Zones as part of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. ATTOM’s report analyzed home sales prices for nearly 3,700 zones.
According to the report, median prices in 48 percent of the zoned areas increased by more than the national rate of gain year-over-year from the third quarter of 2018.
It found that that 79 percent of the zones had median home prices in the third quarter of 2019 that were less than the national median of $270,000 – almost the same percentage as in the second quarter of 2019. Some 46 percent of the zones had median prices of less than $150,000, also roughly the same as in the prior quarter.
“The nationwide home-price surge in the third quarter spread through so-called Opportunity Zones, much as it did the rest of the country,” ATTOM Chief Product Officer Todd Teta said in a release. “Despite sitting in some of the nation’s poorest areas, Opportunity Zones were hardly immune from a housing boom heading into its ninth year. That’s encouraging news for people living in those communities as well as investors looking to take advantage of the Opportunity Zones program.”
ATTOM said California had the most Opportunity Zones (477), followed by Florida (332), Texas (293), Pennsylvania (176) and North Carolina (170).
In metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs), 87 percent of Opportunity Zones had median third quarter sales prices that were less than the median values for the surrounding MSAs, ATTOM found. Among those, 31 percent had median sales prices that were less than half the figure for the MSAs. At the same time, 13 percent of the zones had median sales prices that were equal to or above the median sales price of the broader MSAs.
ATTOM said 46 percent of the zones had a median price in the third quarter of less than $150,000; 17 percent ranged from $150,000 to $199,999. Another 16 percent ranged from $200,000 up to the national median of $270,000; 21 percent were more than $270,000.
ATTOM said the Midwest had the highest rate of Opportunity Zone tracts with a median home price of less than $150,000 (71 percent), followed by the South (56 percent), the Northeast (47 percent) and the West (12 percent).