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Servers Over Shelter: How AI Data Centers Are Outbidding Home Builders for America’s Land

As AI use has grown, so has demand for the facilities that make it possible. Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and Meta were expected to spend more than $300 billion in capital expenditures in 2025, with much of that spending tied to AI infrastructure, cloud capacity, and data center buildouts. That demand is being met with land, and much of it is land that would otherwise have become housing.

Understanding Land Use in Home Building Understand the challenges surrounding land use and development and NAHB’s key advocacy policies.
Tools and Research for Effective Land Use Planning Access essential tools and research, and discover strategies for effective land use planning and housing affordability.
Inclusionary Zoning in Land Use Inclusionary zoning refers to local land use ordinances that require a certain percentage of new residential construction to be sold or rented at below market rates.
Tiny houses on ascending stacks of pennies

Housing Affordability Resources for Land Use

Housing affordability continues to worsen in the U.S. Learn more about some of the land use regulation.

Stack of books with the title regulations

Land Use Regulation Barriers and Fees

Lengthy and complicated review processes related to land use and land development represent an especially difficult challenge for affordably priced housing.

Person filing paperwork and holding a tiny house

Land Use Community Planning and Design

To meet the needs of a growing population, federal, state and local land use policies that accommodate an orderly and sustainable rate of housing production are a necessity.

Understanding Impact Fees

This toolkit is a resource to explore impact fees and their potential effects on the local community, and to provide strategies for balanced infrastructure financing solutions.

Creating Housing for All: Land Use Case Studies

These case studies showcase how communities are tackling the housing affordability crisis.

Structural Inequities in Land Use and Housing

How local exclusionary land use regulations continue to create inequity in housing.