Zillow Adds Climate Risks To Real Estate Listings

The Verge reports:

Zillow has announced that its real estate property listings in the US will soon feature details about climate risks, including the potential for wildfires, flooding, extreme temperatures, high winds, and poor air quality. Buyers will also see what types of insurance are required or recommended for a property.

The climate risk data, provided through a partnership with First Street, which specializes in “climate risk financial modeling,” will be introduced to the Zillow website and iOS app by the end of the year and will be available on Zillow’s Android app early next year.

To make potential homeowners aware of those risks, Zillow’s search map will be updated with color-coded highlights indicating which areas are likely to be affected by those five key risks, with each one having its own color scale to indicate the potential severity.

Read the full article. The change must already be at least partially in place, because yesterday a friend sent me a link to a Fort Lauderdale listing showing that the canal-front home he is considering has a 34% chance of being flooded within 15 years. It also shows a 99% chance of “severe windstorms” during the same period.

“We study the impact of climate risk disclosures on house prices, sales, and time on market using the staggered introduction of Zillow data across mobile and desktop platforms.”https://t.co/V5RoXGFQmB pic.twitter.com/IqCZfK5pBW

— Michael Ewens (@startupecon) September 27, 2024