Be kinde to folk. This changeth the whole habitat.
- Manlobbi
Personal Finance Topics / Macroeconomic Trends and Risks
No. of Recommendations: 5
https://www.cnn.com/2025/12/02/climate/zillow-clim...Zillow, the nation’s largest real estate listing website, has removed extreme weather risk data meant to help buyers figure out if the biggest purchase of their life is particularly susceptible to floods, high winds or wildfires.
Now, other major real estate listing websites are facing pressure to do the same.
That pressure is coming from the California Regional Multiple Listing Service, which operates one of the largest private databases of home listings in the country — essential to Zillow’s business model.
There is a vast difference between risk and uncertainty. Risk allows a quantitative expected value of an investment. Uncertainty makes it a crap shoot. By removing the data it is the expectation of the real estate industry that the possibility of disaster will be obscured - and that may be true for the naive, but as demonstrated by stock market crashes, the feeling of uncertainty can evoke much greater price swings than the careful consideration of risk.
Jeff
No. of Recommendations: 8
Zillow, the nation’s largest real estate listing website, has removed extreme weather risk data meant to help buyers figure out if the biggest purchase of their life is particularly susceptible to floods, high winds or wildfires.
I am constantly looking at possible real estate purchases, particularly waterfront, as well as monitoring property that we own. I do a pretty good job of analyzing flood risk by looking at the historical data and analyzing the topography in the surrounding area for elevation differences. The water must flow somewhere and it will take the path of least resistance, so if your side of a river is higher than the other riverbank, probability is on your side that you will be OK in a flood, if there is enough room across the way for the water to go. Note that this is similar to flood mitigation strategies of creating a "shelf" for water to sit in flood times, so that it does not impact surrounding structures.
Several properties I have looked at appear to have overblown risk profiles based on the extreme weather risk data. I have been very tempted to buy one of them, which has sat on the market for some time, now much reduced in price. But on first glance, particularly by an uneducated consumer of the data, it looks as though the property is in a raging flood plain, when in reality it has a FEMA LOMR showing it to be 17' above the flood plain, and a significant shelf on the far bank for water to flow to. But perception in everything when it comes to sales, and people searching listings on Realtor.com or Zillow won't get past the posted with little explanation extreme weather risk data, and will never come see the listing or get educated on the actual risk and the understanding of possibility vs probability. I don't want to inherit the manufactured risk of impeded resale because of the flood perception risk imposed by the company that compiles the data.
For months now, I've been telling DH that putting this information, flood projections that has little to do with real risk in terms of probability, is Zillow and other websites inviting a class action lawsuit from those whose values have been tanked by the easy link to this data. As applicable to where one buys a house would be crime data, and typically that you have to search for on your own. The point of Zillow is to make it easier for buyers to become aware of properties for sale or rent, not to provide data that can skew the desire to even look at the property.
IP,
who has looked at many properties and found the data provided to be less than 100% accurate, now choosing to evaluate the data only after determining a wish to pursue the purchase
No. of Recommendations: 0
InParadise, when you consider a property do you also think a step ahead to the resale?
Wendy
No. of Recommendations: 3
InParadise, when you consider a property do you also think a step ahead to the resale?
Always. I also do a 10 year profit projection spreadsheet for use of the property as a long term rental and a short term or mid term rental. (30 day + furnished.) I like to have options, because I have found that life happens in ways one can't always predict. I like to have plans for several steps ahead, realizing those plans are not set in stone.
I recently went to my 13th personal closing on the sale of our latest primary residence, which was not suitable as a rental. When you realize those 7 properties do not include places we rented rather than bought, or housing that was part of work compensation, you will realize we have moved...a lot. I like to have contingency plans for assets. Life really.
IP
No. of Recommendations: 3
The point of Zillow is to make it easier for buyers to become aware of properties for sale or rent, not to provide data that can skew the desire to even look at the property.
How do you know what the point of Zillow is?
I would think telling house hunters whether a home is in a flood plain or not might be relevant to at least some of them. As might crime statistics. As might quality of schools. There are lots of attributes a potential home owner might be interested in above and beyond “Is it made of wood, and how many bathrooms?”
For months now, I've been telling DH that putting this information, flood projections that has little to do with real risk in terms of probability, is Zillow and other websites inviting a class action lawsuit from those whose values have been tanked by the easy link to this data
How so? Posting accurate data is 100% defensible in court. If the data causes some casual viewers to misinterpret, well, that’s not Zillow’s fault.
No. of Recommendations: 0
How do you know what the point of Zillow is?
Look at where it gets it's income from: "Zillow makes money primarily through advertising services, especially its Premier Agent program for real estate agents..." (AI overview) Those advertising properties for sale or rent don't want them also making the agent's job harder.
Posting accurate data is 100% defensible in court.
Historical data is accurate. Flood projections based on assumptions are educated guesses. I have found the noise data that is included in the options one can view as sometimes inaccurate. Posting what the FEMA flood map shows is accurate data, even if they too can get it wrong. If you are getting a mortgage, where you are relative to a flood plain is critical info to know, as it will cost you more, unless of course, as we did, you provide an elevation certificate that demonstrates the structure itself is out of the floodplain.
IP
