According to ATTOM’s new Q2 2021 Opportunity Zones Report, median single-family home prices increased from Q2 2020 to Q2 2021 in 75 percent of Opportunity Zones and rose by at least 15 percent in about half of them. The report noted that price patterns in Opportunity Zones continued to roughly track trends in other areas of the U.S., even surpassing them in some ways, as they did in Q1 2021.
ATTOM’s quarterly opportunity zones report analyzes qualified low-income Opportunity Zones established by Congress in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. For ATTOM’s latest opportunity zones analysis, ATTOM looked at 5,236 zones around the U.S. with at least five home sales in Q2 2021.
The Q2 2021 report found that home values in Opportunity Zones continued to lag well behind the national median of $305,000 in Q2 2021, with about three-quarters of the zones with enough data to analyze had typical prices below the national figure. The report noted that some 39 percent also still had median prices of less than $150,000 in Q2 2021, down from 47 percent in Q2 2020, as values inside some of the nation’s poorest communities kept surging ahead with the broader national housing market, despite the Coronavirus pandemic remaining a threat to the U.S. economy.
Also according to ATTOM’s latest analysis, Opportunity Zones did even better when comparing areas where prices rose at least 25 percent from Q2 2020 to Q2 2021. The report stated that measured year over year, median home prices rose by that level in 35 percent of Opportunity Zones, but in only 30 percent of census tracts elsewhere in the country.
The report also noted that among states with at least 20 Opportunity Zones, those with the largest percentage of zones where median prices rose, year over year, in Q2 2021 included New Hampshire (median prices up, year over year, in 95 percent of zones), Massachusetts (94 percent), Idaho (91 percent), Utah (90 percent) and Arizona (89 percent).
In this post, we dig deeper into the data behind the Q2 2021 Opportunity Zones report to uncover the top 10 opportunity zones with the largest five-year median home price increases, among those states that saw the largest percentage of zones where median prices rose, year over year, and posted a median home price topping the national median of $305,000.
Those zones include: 16035940000 in Clearwater, Idaho (increased 145.4 percent from Q2 2017 to Q2 2021); 16027022200 in Canyon, Idaho (increased 135.6 percent); 16021970200 in Boundary, Idaho (increased 114.6 percent); 49049002801 in Utah, Utah (increased 114.2 percent); 04013318800 in Maricopa, Arizona (increased 113.1 percent); 04021000310 in Pinal, Arizona (increased 111.9 percent); 16057005100 in Latah, Idaho (increased 110.7 percent); 16055000602 in Kootenai, Idaho (increased 105.1 percent); 16001002000 in Ada, Idaho (increased 104.8 percent); and 04015954800 in Mohave, Arizona (increased 98.8 percent).
ATTOM’s Q2 2021 Opportunity Zones report also noted that 39 percent of the zones included in the analysis still had median prices in Q2 2021 that were less than $150,000, while 17 percent had medians ranging from $150,000 to $199,999. The total percentage of zones with typical values below $200,000 was down from 65 percent in Q2 2020 to 56 percent in Q2 2021. The report stated that median values in Q2 2021 ranged from $200,000 to $299,999 in 21 percent of the zones, while they topped the national median of $305,000 in 23 percent.
Opportunity Zones are defined in the Tax Act legislation as census tracts in or along side 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 with 1,200 to 8,000 residents, with an average of about 4,000 people.
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