About 80% of Opportunity Zones had median home prices below the national mark of $266,000 in the second quarter, according to Attom Data Solutions.
What's more, 47% of those zones had home prices which fell below $150,000. The incentive of tax breaks from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 drives investors to support development in Opportunity Zones — with a goal of building affordable housing in low-income urban and rural communities in poor census tracts across the U.S.
In the zones, 86% of homes had prices under the median of their individual markets, while about 26% had median prices under the 50th percentile of their surrounding metro areas. However, 14% had values above the median sales price of their housing market.
"Opportunity Zones are among the poorest areas of the country, with some of the lowest home prices. This should come as no surprise because the zones are designed to be in or alongside economically distressed neighborhoods," Todd Teta, chief product officer with Attom, said in a press release. "But the differences between these and other areas in most parts of the nation are stark. The numbers provide key benchmarks for how much room there is for these areas to grow and how much new investment they need."
Wyoming led all states with 17% of census tracts meeting Opportunity Zone eligibility. Mississippi's 15%, Washington, D.C.'s 14% and Alabama's 13% came next. Countrywide, 10% of all tracts qualify. Overall, California led all states with 374 zones, Florida with 317, Texas with 164 and Pennsylvania's 154 followed.
Attom based its report on 3,073 zones with at least five home sales in the second quarter of 2019 as well as an average of at least five sales per quarter since the third quarter of 2018.
