Zillow's Climate Risk Score Program Axed After Agents Claim it Was Misleading
In a surprising move, online real estate marketplace Zillow has removed climate risk scores from over 1 million listings just one year after launching the program, citing complaints from agents that the data was misleading and led to lost sales. The company replaced the scores with links to climate risk data from First Street, which provided the original assessment.
The California Regional Multiple Listing Service (CRMLS) is pleased with Zillow's decision, stating that displaying flood risk could affect a property's perceived desirability. CRMLS CEO Art Carter also questioned the validity of First Street's data, suggesting that areas with no flooding in 40 or 50 years were unlikely to experience floods in the next five years.
First Street disputes this claim, maintaining that its climate risk scores are useful for consumers and have correctly identified risks for over 90% of homes that burned during the Los Angeles wildfires. The company's internal maps also outperform CalFire's official state hazard maps, according to First Street.
The move has raised questions about the reliability of climate risk assessments in real estate, with some experts warning that these scores can be misleading and stigmatizing for certain areas. As a result, Zillow has removed a program that was meant to provide transparency but ultimately caused confusion among agents and consumers alike.
In a surprising move, online real estate marketplace Zillow has removed climate risk scores from over 1 million listings just one year after launching the program, citing complaints from agents that the data was misleading and led to lost sales. The company replaced the scores with links to climate risk data from First Street, which provided the original assessment.
The California Regional Multiple Listing Service (CRMLS) is pleased with Zillow's decision, stating that displaying flood risk could affect a property's perceived desirability. CRMLS CEO Art Carter also questioned the validity of First Street's data, suggesting that areas with no flooding in 40 or 50 years were unlikely to experience floods in the next five years.
First Street disputes this claim, maintaining that its climate risk scores are useful for consumers and have correctly identified risks for over 90% of homes that burned during the Los Angeles wildfires. The company's internal maps also outperform CalFire's official state hazard maps, according to First Street.
The move has raised questions about the reliability of climate risk assessments in real estate, with some experts warning that these scores can be misleading and stigmatizing for certain areas. As a result, Zillow has removed a program that was meant to provide transparency but ultimately caused confusion among agents and consumers alike.
i mean zillow just pulled climate risk scores from like over 1 million listings after all these agents were complaining they were misleading 
is it true tho? shouldn't climate risk scores be a thing if they're actually accurate? 
i mean first street says their data is legit but crmls CEO is calling them out for being super conservative 
anywayz zillow's decision might not be so bad, maybe they just wanna avoid freaking out buyers 
but seriously though, this whole thing has me thinking... how reliable are climate risk assessments in real estate? 
can't we all just get along and figure this out 
. I thought climate risk scores were a good idea - like, isn't knowing if a house is in flood-prone area kinda important? 
But apparently, it was misleading to some people, which means it caused problems for agents who had to use the info to sell houses 
.
but shouldn't it just be about giving accurate info in the first place? 
. She freaked out, didn't know what to do with that info. Turns out, the data was off, but by then she'd already made an offer and was worried sick. It just goes to show, these climate risk scores might seem useful, but they can also be super misleading... I guess Zillow learned that the hard way 
zillow just took down their climate risk score program after only 1 year n it's like they were trying to do the right thing but ended up doing the wrong thing instead 
It feels like Zillow was trying to do something good but ended up making things worse.