Zillow Drops Climate Risk Tool After Complaints From Realtors

Zillow has quietly removed a feature from its listings that showed the climate risks faced by individual properties, following pushback from real estate agents and homeowners who say the data is hurting sales. The tool, introduced last fall, gave buyers a snapshot of risks like wildfires, iffy air quality, severe heat, and floods for about a million homes listed on the site. Zillow cited complaints that the risk scores seemed inconsistent and couldn't be challenged, with the California Regional Multiple Listing Service among those raising concerns.

"Future predictions ended up being very wrong," CRMLS chief executive Art Carter tells CNN of flood projections in the Golden State that apparently didn't pan out. The real estate giant says it's still committed to transparency and now links out to First Street, the nonprofit that originally provided the climate data, per the Guardian. First Street's chief, Matthew Eby, warns that buyers will now be "flying blind" at a time when climate-driven disasters are reshaping the US housing market.

Eby argues that the backlash came about due to a tough real-estate environment, with insurers hiking premiums or leaving risky states altogether, intensifying the pressure to close deals. "Climate risk data didn't suddenly become inconvenient. It became harder to ignore in a stressed market," he says. Despite climate change driving up the cost and scarcity of home insurance, more Americans are moving to risk-prone regions such as Florida and the Southwest, making the issue even more pressing.

Not everyone is sold on property-level climate ratings, though. Some experts say the models are too uncertain, and they warn that proprietary tools can undermine confidence in climate science if assessments prove shaky. Eby stands by First Street's methods, while Tulane University's Jesse Keenan says the models' limitations mean the government should play a bigger role in standardizing risk assessments. This guest essay in the New York Times, meanwhile, encourages consumers to demand Zillow reinstate the risk assessments, or to use platforms that include them.