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Stanley Martin sold land to Amazon for $700 million for data centers, highlighting the growing trend of prioritizing data center development over housing amid a significant housing shortage of over 75,000 homes in Virginia. Landowners are finding data centers more profitable than residential projects due to easier zoning and higher land prices.

In Northern Virginia, data centers made up 20-30% of land development from 2013-2021, increasing by 50% from 2022-2024. Local officials express concern that data centers are outbidding residential developers, complicating the housing crisis with rising land costs and limited available space.