Zillow home listings no longer show fire, flood and storm risk

Zillow has stopped publishing climate risk assessments for sales listings that show properties are likely to be affected by severe weather. New York Times Reports. A feature introduced by the real estate listings site last year used data from risk modeling firm First Street to predict which homes were most vulnerable to floods, wildfires, wind, extreme heat and poor air quality, as weather conditions pose an increasing risk to properties.

The change went into effect earlier this month following complaints from the California Regional Multiple Listing Service (CRMLS) regarding the accuracy of First Street’s risk models. “Showing the likelihood of a particular home flooding this year or within the next five years can have a significant impact on the perceived desirability of that property,” said Art Carter, CEO of CRMLS. New York Times.

Sales listings on Zillow now link users to First Street’s website instead, where they can manually find climate risk scores for specific properties. Millions more properties are at risk of flooding compared to government estimates, First Street data shows.