Zillow is helping prospective homebuyers prepare for an increasingly uncertain future full of volatile weather patterns by introducing a feature that will score properties based on climate risk, potential weather-related disasters, and insurance information.
The real-estate platform announced Thursday that it was joining forces with First Street, a tech company that helps organizations understand climate change to improve financial modeling.
First Street will leverage its findings to assist Zillow in analyzing and predicting how various threats, like floods or wildfires, might impact homes.
"At First Street we are on a mission to connect climate change to financial risk," said Matthew Eby, founder and CEO of First Street. "Partnering with Zillow helps us achieve that mission by providing the millions of everyday users on the Zillow platforms with the same property-specific climate risk data that is used by top banks, agencies and investors."
A statement from Zillow Group confirms that the new section will include "a separate module for each risk category—flood, wildfire, wind, heat and air quality—giving detailed, property-specific data from First Street."
The Zillow Group also reported that the section will display "how these risks might affect the home now and in the future" along with insight into "insurance requirements."
The filter will apply to all for-sale real estate listings across the U.S. and will be available on the Zillow website and iOS app by the end of 2024. Rollouts for Android devices are said to be available early 2025.
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