As extreme weather events become more frequent, climate risks are influencing many people’s long-term decisions. And few things are as long-term as buying real estate. In response, Zillow announced a new partnership to provide climate risk information to its sales listings.
U.S. real estate listing pages include data about the location’s flood, wildfire, wind, heat, and air quality risks. This section also lists climate-related insurance requirements for the property. This information is provided by First Street, an expert in climate risk financial modeling. Climate data is rolling out to the Zillow website and iOS app this year, and Android is expected to get the update early next year. Some locations have already updated their climate data to appear on the web.
These five risk categories are also applied to Zillow’s interactive map search view. There are color-coded visualizations for different climate concerns, showing the risk level for the entire country or smaller regions. This is valuable information for anyone who is in a position to make a big leap into buying a home. For others, it might just add a bit of dark reality to the fun experience of scrolling through absurd or overpriced homes.
Zillow also introduced improvements to its AI search capabilities earlier this month.
