First Street, a relatively new, for-profit startup focused on climate risk analytics, has been in the news recently. They only recently eliminated their climate risk scores from Zillow home listings! This abrupt reversal follows widespread complaints from real estate agents that the publicly released scores hurt their sales prospects. Introduced in September 2024, First Street’s data was integrated into Zillow’s for-sale property listings across the United States, aiming to inform consumers about climate risks associated with their potential new homes.
Yet First Street’s climate risk scores made their debut on Realtor.com in 2020, and consumer adoption moved quickly. Research from Zillow found that more than four out of five house hunters take climate threats into account when shopping for a new home. Once these scores were folded into Zillow’s user interface, all hell broke loose among real estate practitioners. They argued that making these risks publicly available changed consumers’ perceptions of affected properties in ways that could prevent legitimate sales.
Matthew Eby, a spokesperson for First Street, called it critical to ensure that people have access to factual climate risk information. He stated, “Our models are built on transparent, peer-reviewed science and are continuously validated against real-world outcomes.” This commitment to transparency is the bedrock of First Street’s mission to empower consumers with the information they need to make smart decisions.
Regardless of the pushback by agents and others, First Street’s data serves to underscore the alarming inconsistencies in current hazard maps. For example, the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) flood maps have been widely condemned for being outdated or not reflecting current risk levels. First Street’s analysis shows that nearly twice as many properties exhibit a 1% annual risk of flooding compared to those listed on FEMA’s maps.
To remove these climate risk scores from First Street’s property listings, over 1 million of these active property listings on Zillow were impacted. Several agents said that the scores misrepresented their listings. A Massachusetts real estate agent remarked, “It puts thoughts in people’s minds about my listing that normally wouldn’t be there.”
First Street has Normative raised more than $50 million from investors including General Catalyst, Congruent Ventures, and Galvanize Climate Solutions. This funding will help its ongoing work to produce trusted, consistent climate risk scores. This funding provides important firepower to the startup’s cause. It allows them to provide the most complete and up-to-date climate risk information to businesses and individuals alike.
Art Carter, a real estate professional, noted the critical impact of climate risk information. He stated that “displaying the probability of a specific home flooding this year or within the next five years can have a significant impact on the perceived desirability of that property.” This sentiment is indicative of the increasing consciousness among prospective homebuyers of climate-related risks.
First Street’s data proved instrumental during the Los Angeles wildfires. In comparing its maps to the actual homes that burned, it found that more than 90% of those homes were properly identified as being at severe or extreme risk. Matthew Eby pointed out that First Street’s models outperformed CalFire’s official state hazard maps, stating, “In the CRMLS coverage area, during the Los Angeles wildfires, our maps identified over 90 percent of the homes that ultimately burned as being at severe or extreme risk — our highest risk rating — and 100 percent as having some level of risk.“
Climate change will pose more and more burdens to current and future homeowners. As our nation continues to face grave challenges, access to reliable information has never been more essential. Eby emphasized that “when buyers lack access to clear climate-risk information, they make the biggest financial decision of their lives while flying blind.”
