Zillow has quietly removed climate risk ratings from its property listings after facing pressure from real estate industry groups who claimed the data was hurting property values. The move marks a significant retreat from transparency in an era when extreme weather increasingly threatens American homes.
Zillow just made climate change invisible to millions of homebuyers. The real estate giant quietly pulled climate risk ratings from its property listings earlier this month, bowing to pressure from industry groups who complained the data was scaring away potential buyers.
The retreat represents a major step backward for housing market transparency. Until recently, Zillow displayed detailed climate risk scores on each listing, showing the probability of floods, wildfires, extreme heat, wind damage, and poor air quality hitting specific properties over the next 30 years. The feature launched in 2024 using data from First Street, a risk-modeling company whose flood predictions often exceed government estimates by millions of homes.
But the California Regional Multiple Listing Service (CRMLS) wasn't having it. The industry group pressured Zillow to remove the scores, arguing they unfairly tanked property values. "Displaying the probability of a specific home flooding this year or within the next five years can have a significant impact on the perceived desirability of that property," CRMLS CEO Art Carter told The New York Times.
The timing couldn't be more problematic. Climate disasters are hitting record highs, with 2024 seeing $90 billion in weather-related damages across the US. Hurricane Helene alone caused catastrophic flooding in areas previously considered low-risk, while California's wildfire season continues expanding beyond traditional boundaries. Homebuyers are increasingly desperate for reliable risk information as extreme weather becomes the new normal.
Now buyers wanting climate data must navigate to First Street's website separately and manually search for each property - a cumbersome process that most won't bother completing. The company's models show millions more properties face flood risk compared to FEMA's outdated maps, which haven't been comprehensively updated in decades.
The real estate industry's pushback reveals the fundamental tension between climate reality and property values. While accurate risk disclosure protects buyers from purchasing homes in danger zones, it also threatens to expose the true vulnerability of America's housing stock. Properties in high-risk areas could see values plummet if buyers fully understood their exposure to future disasters.
