Property data curator ATTOM released its first-quarter 2025 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 3,558 zones around the country with sufficient data to analyze, meaning they had at least five home sales in the first quarter.
The report found that median single-family home and condo prices increased from the fourth quarter of the first quarter of 2025 in 48 percent of Opportunity Zones around the country. At the same time, the national median price remained the same.
Medians were up annually in 59 percent of Opportunity Zones during a time when the typical nationwide price went up 8 percent, according to ATTOM.
As the housing market boom continued into in its 14th year, median prices grew more than 10 percent annually in nearly half the Opportunity Zones analyzed.
Despite that, the first-quarter trends were mixed, with typical values rising far more often in higher-priced zones than in the very lowest-priced neighborhoods, according to ATTOM. That continued to show more significant weakness at the very bottom of the housing market, suggesting those areas are reaping the fewest benefits from rising home values and could be more vulnerable if the broader market surge stalls.
The latest patterns mark another sign that some of the most distressed communities in the nation are showing economic strength, or limited weakness, compared to other markets around the country, ATTOM research showed.
By several important measures, Opportunity Zones continued to enjoy even better price trends than the nation as a whole during the first quarter, ATTOM reported. For example, annual median price increases bested typical nationwide gains in a slightly larger portion of Opportunity Zones than elsewhere.
“Home-value patterns inside Opportunity Zones remain pretty much in lock-step with the rest of the country, just as we’ve seen ever since we started looking at this niche of the market,” ATTOM CEO Rob Barber said in a release. “From one to another, those very local markets remain volatile, with troubling signs in the very lowest-priced areas. But the big picture shows remarkable, and mostly positive, consistency. This likely reflects the ongoing short supply of homes for sale across the country and rising prices, which pushes marginal buyers to roll the dice on locations with varying levels of economic distress.”
Barber added “the homebuyer money flowing into these communities shows enduring potential for them to turn around, providing solid foundations for investors looking to use the Opportunity Zone incentives.”
Typical home values across wide swaths of Opportunity Zones remained far below those around most of the nation in the early months of the year. Median first-quarter prices inside 80 percent of the zones stood below the median of $355,000. That was about the same portion as in other time periods since 2020. In addition, median prices remained less than $200,000 in almost half the zones.
Considerable price volatility also continued inside Opportunity Zones, with median values either dropping or increasing by at least 5 percent in nearly three-quarters of those locations from late 2023 to early 2024. That likely reflected small numbers of sales in many zones.
The latest overall trends in Opportunity Zones still generally matched the nationwide path of home prices during the first few months of 2025.
Here is an overview of the significant findings from the report:
- Measured annually, median prices of single-family homes and condos remained up from the first quarter of 2024 to the same period this year in 1,762 (59 percent) of Opportunity Zones.
- Both the quarterly and annual trends in Opportunity Zones matched patterns in other areas: median prices rose quarterly and annually in the same portion of census tracts outside of Opportunity Zones - 48 percent and 59 percent.
- Typical values were up more than 10 percent annually in 42 percent of Opportunity Zones, compared to 37 percent of neighborhoods outside the zones.
- However, median prices were up annually in 47 percent of Opportunity Zones where homes commonly sold for less than $125,000 during the first quarter of 2025.
- Among states that had at least 25 Opportunity Zones with enough data to analyze during the first quarter, the largest portions of zones where median prices increased annually were in Indiana (75 percent of zones), New York (72 percent), Missouri (70 percent), Colorado (69 percent) and New Jersey (65 percent).
- States where prices were up annually in the smallest portion of zones included Nevada (44 percent of zones), Washington (49 percent), Florida (49 percent), Iowa (52 percent) and Tennessee (52 percent).
- Of the 3,558 zones in the report, 1,097 (31 percent) had median prices below $150,000 in the first quarter. That was down from 34 percent of zones with sufficient data a year earlier and 57 percent five years ago. Another 556 zones (16 percent) had medians in the first quarter of this year ranging from $150,000 to $199,999.
- Median values in the first quarter of 2025 ranged from $200,000 to $299,999 in 24 percent of Opportunity Zones while they topped the nationwide first-quarter national median of $355,000 in 20 percent.
- The Midwest continued in the first quarter to have larger portions of the lowest-priced Opportunity Zone tracts. Median home values were less than $175,000 in 61 percent of zones in the Midwest, followed by the Northeast (42 percent), the South (39 percent) and the West (6 percent).