As extreme weather events become ever more common, climate risks are playing a role in many people’s long-term decision-making. And few things are more long-term than buying real estate. In response, Zillow has announced a new partnership to bring climate risk information to its for-sale listings.
Property listing pages in the US will include data about flood, wildfire, wind, heat and air quality risks at that location. This section will also list any climate-related insurance requirements for that property. The information is being provided by First Street, a specialist in climate risk financial modeling. The climate data is rolling out this year to the Zillow website and iOS app, while Android is expected to get the update early next year. Some locations have already been updated to show climate data on the web.
Those five risk categories are also being applied to Zillow’s interactive map search view. Each of the different climate concerns has a color-coded visualization to show the risk levels across the country or in a smaller region. It’s valuable information for anybody in a position to make that big homebuying leap. For everybody else, it may add simply a touch of gloomy reality to the gleeful experience of scrolling through absurd and/or overpriced houses.
Zillow also introduced improvements to its AI search feature earlier this month.
Source: www.engadget.com