It’s clear: Homebuyers want climate risk data.
That’s the takeaway from Redfin’s latest report, which found that homebuyers flock to climate risk data after natural disasters. The national click-through rate for this data rose after Hurricanes Helene and Milton (3.3 percent to 4.1 percent), the Los Angeles wildfires (3.5 percent to 3.9 percent) and the Texas Hill Country floods (3.3 percent to 3.6 percent). The boost often lasted for one to three months before returning to pre-disaster trends.
Redfin on Tuesday also reaffirmed its commitment to keeping climate information on listings, saying in an email to Inman that the company “will not be changing the way it displays climate risk data.” The comment comes just over a week after Zillow opted to remove climate risk data from listings. Zillow now includes a link on listings that would-be shoppers can click for more information.
In its report on Tuesday, Redfin went on to say that click-through rates don’t fully capture homebuyers’ interactions with climate risk data, as most shoppers rely on the site’s climate risk summary rather than clicking through to the full First Street report.
Daryl Fairweather
“Humans often have short memories when it comes to natural disasters,” Redfin Chief Economist Daryl Fairweather said in a written statement. “A major fire or storm can jolt homebuyers into paying attention to climate risk because the event feels fresh and likely to happen again, but this urgency is fleeting.”
“That’s why local leaders have a small but crucial window after a disaster to educate people on disaster preparedness and resilience,” she added. “Homeowners should think about natural disasters as an ongoing risk and have an action plan in case catastrophe strikes.”
Redfin said the lion’s share of U.S. residents (67.6 percent) say living in a place with a low natural disaster risk is non-negotiable; however, financial and familial needs are leading homebuyers to often bend their standards. That trend may be changing, the report said, as more buyers in 2024 moved out of than into flood-prone zones for the first time since 2019.
Homebuyers in Mississippi (9.6 percent), Louisiana (9.2 percent), Vermont (8.9 percent), West Virginia (8.3 percent) and Florida (7.2 percent) had the highest climate data click-through rates. Mississippi and Louisiana are the two most ‘climate vulnerable’ states, according to the Environmental Defense Fund and Texas A&M University. Both areas are exposed to higher hurricane and tornado rates, which have weighed on residents through higher insurance costs and per-capita disaster losses.
The average annual cost of homeowner’s insurance in Louisiana is expected to reach $13,937 by the end of this year — a 27 percent increase from 2024. That cost doesn’t account for flood insurance, which many Louisianans purchase separately.
“The high cost of homeowner’s insurance in Louisiana is limiting people’s ability to afford homes,” New Orleans-based Redfin Premier agent Jason Gale said in the report. “A lot of homebuyers have backed out of deals because they couldn’t find insurance that fit their budget. It’s critical that buyers find lenders that understand the nuance of their market because you don’t want to end up in a situation where your lender quotes you $150 a month for insurance and the actual cost ends up being $500.”
On the other hand, Washington, D.C. (2.4 percent), Nevada (3.2 percent), Nebraska (3.3 percent), Minnesota (3.4 percent) and Arizona (3.4 percent) had the lowest climate data click-through rates, which are on par with the October national click-through rate of 3.2 percent.
Redfin Senior Economist Yingqi Xu said these rates, although small, still represent “meaningful” engagement with climate data.
“It’s clear that the spike in Florida’s clickthrough rate during hurricane season and the spike in California’s clickthrough rate during the Los Angeles fires drove increases in the national clickthrough rate,” Xu said in a prepared statement. “The national uptick is more muted because it includes the behavior of house hunters in other states who weren’t affected by disasters. This indicates that natural disasters primarily impact the behavior of people searching for homes near the disaster zone—not those searching in other areas.”
Redfin’s report on climate data comes amid an unusually intense focus on the topic in real estate, thanks in part to Zillow’s recent move. In Zillow’s case, the portal giant now provides a link on listings to First Street, a company that displays property-specific risk data. As Inman previously reported, Zillow’s move came amid complaints from the California Regional Multiple Listing Service (CRMLS), which questioned the climate data’s accuracy and relayed feedback from agents who said the information hurt sales.
“[Zillow] remains committed to providing consumers with information that helps them make informed real estate decisions,” a spokesperson told Inman last week. “We updated our climate risk product experience to adhere to varying MLS requirements and maintain a consistent experience for all consumers.”
The move prompted considerable debate both inside and outside the real estate industry, but Redfin’s decision to keep climate data on listings shows that companies in the portal space are staking out different positions on the issue.
