Zillow's climate scores have been controversial for some time, and in late November, the largest real estate listing site in the world quietly removed the data from more than one million listings. 

The climate risk scores and hazards were calculated by First Street Foundation, a company that works to make climate risk transparent, specifically to financial institutions, companies, and government, and many homebuyers had relied on the scores as a negotiation point. The scores provided transparency about a home's exposure to floods, wildfires, extreme heat, wind, poor air quality, and other climate-related hazards. Zillow removed the scores after pressure from real estate agents and listing services, who claimed that the ratings depressed home values and harmed sales. 

While Zillow still links to First Street Foundation data on listings, the link is much harder to find, making it harder for homeowners to make informed decisions about the most expensive purchase they’ll make in their lifetimes. 

Zillow’s main competitor, Redfin, continues to list climate data on listings, and Redfin’s Chief Economist, Darryl Fairweather, took to LinkedIn to state that the company would continue to provide the data because homebuyers value it, writing:  “Ignorance isn’t bliss when it comes to your biggest asset.”

The delisting of climate data marks one more data point in how climate risk is presented to the public, or, in the case of Zillow, hidden, in the US housing market.

The change to Zillow’s climate score listings came on the heels of a complaint from the California Regional Multiple Listing Service (CRMLS), which stated that the scores were inaccurate and difficult to dispute. The CRMLS, one of the largest listing services in the country, argued that displaying risk scores could violate its data rules and harm sales in certain regions. Agents in fire and flood-prone areas said that the scores were scaring off buyers, with some sellers blaming the scores for slower sales and lower offers. 

Zillow first introduced climate scores in 2024, saying the details would help homebuyers understand flood, wildfire, heat, wind, and air quality risks over the life of a typical 30-year mortgage. The scores were presented on the site as numerical risk indicators, along with context on the likelihood of these climate-change-driven disasters. 

At the time, Zillow argued that the information was necessary for buyers because climate-related threats have increased thanks to human-induced climate change.

As Skylar Olsen, the chief economist at Zillow, noted in the press release that announced the climate score rollout in 2024, "Climate risks are now a critical factor in home-buying decisions. Healthy markets are ones where buyers and sellers have access to all relevant data for their decisions. As concerns about flooding, extreme temperatures and wildfires grow — and what that might mean for future insurance costs — this tool also helps agents inform their clients in discussing climate risk, insurance and long-term affordability."

Real estate agents began complaining about the scores almost immediately, mostly because it cut into their commissions. For example, in Massachusetts, one agent told the Boston Globe that the scores created concerns amongst buyers that they had not previously considered, arguing that it was “putting thoughts in people’s minds about my listing that normally wouldn’t be there.” 

Just because the data is hidden doesn't mean the risk goes away. Last year alone, extreme weather caused more than $182 billion in damages, one of the highest on record, which points to the fact that the government database that showed this data has since been taken offline by the Trump administration. 

As a recent New York Times op-ed penned by John Marshall, the C.E.O. and founder of the Potential Energy Coalition, a nonprofit marketing firm focused on climate change, noted, “suppressing verified risk information is dangerous. When buyers can’t see the risks up front, they may take on more exposure than they can afford — homes that become too expensive to insure, with costs families didn’t anticipate, and, worst of all, natural disasters they hadn’t yet thought of in personal terms.”

The issue, as Marshall points out, is larger than how much real estate agents want to make on a home sale in a softening housing market that remains massively constrained by a severe shortage of affordable homes. Prior to the rollout of these climate scores by large-scale listing platforms, buyers had little to no way of knowing a property's future climate risk. As he points out, most states don’t have flood disclosure laws, and government flood maps, which insurers use to determine rates and coverage, have repeatedly failed to assess real flood risk. In fact, 75% of FEMA’s flood maps are outdated. 

The financial implications for the housing market and for both buyers and sellers are tremendous. We've already seen insurers pull out of high-climate-risk areas like Florida and California, where extreme storms and wildfires have ravaged communities. Without insurance, people cannot buy or sell homes because banks will not lend on homes that could be vulnerable to repeated climate disasters. As a result, home values fall significantly. Homes in ZIP codes most exposed to hurricanes and wildfires sell for an average of $43,900 less than they would otherwise. In many cases, buyers don’t find out about the astronomical increase, or all-out disappearance of home insurance, until well after they’ve closed on a home. 

Zillow's backpedaling is another warning sign in the struggle between science and markets to accurately quantify, track, and confront climate threats that are no longer simply theoretical. 

Removing information from public view is not especially new, but is symptomatic of the widespread attack on the veracity of climate change and science.

If the US hopes to adapt housing markets to a harsher climate and save both people’s financial and physical lives, climate risk data cannot be hidden or optional. Without transparent, visible, standardized, scientific, publicly available climate data, millions of buyers will continue to unknowingly step into the path of the climate crisis.