The real estate industry is also paying attention. By pure coincidence, Zillow announced a new feature last week as Hurricane Helen hit the Southeast. View climate risk score It will appear on your listing page alongside an interactive map and insurance requirements. When you search for an address, you can now see the property’s risk of flooding, extreme temperatures, and wildfire on a scale of 1 to 10 based on the data provided. Climate risk modeling company First Street. Redfin, a Zillow competitor, Announcement of unique climate risk index We used data from First Street earlier this year.
Zillow and Redfin’s new climate risk scores can’t tell you with certainty whether you’ll be affected by a natural disaster if you move into a particular home. But it’s a tool that can help you decide how to insure your property and think about its long-term value.
It’s almost no surprise that Zillow and Redfin, platforms designed to help people find the perfect home, are working to show that climate risk is not binary. For the same reason that there is no perfect climate change shelter, there is no such thing as a completely risk-free home.
Climate risk is a complex equation that further complicates the already difficult and complex calculation of buying a home. While better access to data on risks would be helpful, the industry would especially benefit from a little more transparency around the insurance side of homeownership. Struggles to adapt to a warming world And the disaster that comes with it.
“When insurance costs start to rise, all of that starts to impact affordability issues.” skyler olsensaid Zillow’s chief economist. “It will help move the housing market in a healthier direction, where buyers and sellers understand these risks and have options to deal with them.”
However, knowing the risks does not prevent people from traveling. To disaster-prone areas across the country Right now. People move to new areas of the country for a myriad of different reasons, including the area’s natural beauty, job opportunities, and affordable housing. those are some of the reasons Why are there so many high-risk counties across the country? Growing faster than low-risk countiesEven in the face of unpredictable and inevitable future climate change. Knowing how to properly prepare for the worst-case scenario is almost impossible.
“The scale of these events we are seeing far exceeds anything humanity has ever seen before.” Vivek Chandasprofessor of urban planning at Portland State University. “Even if you think your preparedness and infrastructure is at a manageable level, cracks can still occur and damage can still occur.”
that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t build a seawall or Find new ways to fight wildfires. In a sense, we have the opportunity to create our own climate havens by making cities more resilient to the risks they face. We can be optimistic about its future.
