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Majority of Americans oppose AI data centers in their neighborhoods
A Redfin-commissioned Ipsos survey found opposition is highest among baby boomers and Gen X, and 58% of residents link AI advances to job loss and worse home affordability.
More than half of U.S. residents, 53%, oppose building an AI data center in their neighborhood, while 34% support it, according to a Redfin-commissioned Ipsos survey conducted in May 2026.
The survey, fielded to 4,000 U.S. residents, asked how people feel about constructing different types of properties nearby, with respondents able to select strongly or somewhat support, strongly or somewhat oppose, or no opinion; Redfin combined the support and oppose responses. Redfin said the results carry a credibility interval of plus or minus 1.9 percentage points.
Redfin attributed much of the backlash to concerns that AI data centers strain electricity and water resources, potentially raising energy costs and triggering environmental worries, and that they can disrupt communities with noise and large industrial-looking structures.
Redfin also reported that nearly three in five U.S. residents, 58%, believe advances in AI will eliminate jobs and make it harder to afford homes. By age, about two-thirds of baby boomers, 65%, and 60% of Gen Xers oppose AI data center construction locally, versus 42% of Gen Z and 43% of millennials, and the outlet cited agents hearing buyer and relocation concerns about noise, traffic, and heavy water and power use.