Prospective homebuyers, already contending with high rates and a difficult market, now face another barrier in the process.
Zillow, the largest web-based real estate marketplace in the United States, removed critical property-level data at the behest of angry realtors, CNN reported.
What's happening?
On Nov. 17, KTLA reported that Los Angeles' housing market was "stagnant — big time," with the number of homes "changing hands" in the area in 2025 at a virtual standstill.
Although the outlet attributed a soft market to concerns about "affordability," the article was a bellwether. Less than two weeks later, The New York Times reported a change to Zillow.
In September 2024, Zillow issued a glowing press release about a new feature: property scores for "five key risks," including flood, fire, and air quality, provided by First Street. Competitors Redfin and Realtor.com began providing similar data in 2020 and 2021.
The Times' Nov. 30 coverage confirmed that Zillow "quietly removed" climate risk ratings following "complaints from the California Regional Multiple Listing Service."
Unfortunately for Zillow, its efforts to quietly conceal extreme weather risk scores instead caused the "Streisand effect," generating significant public interest and anger. Notably, the Streisand effect stemmed from real estate as well, as she sought to suppress images of her mansion, which only served to draw more attention to her mansion.
Matthew Eby is the founder and CEO of First Street, a non-profit established to make climate risk data accessible to all. Eby pushed back against realtors' claims that the data "put thoughts" in buyers' heads, thereby dissuading them from buying, and decried Zillow's decision.
"We take accuracy very seriously, and the data speaks for itself. When buyers lack access to clear climate-risk information, they make the biggest financial decision of their lives while flying blind," Eby warned CNN.
Why is this concerning?
According to Google Trends data, searches for "extreme weather" reached an all-time high in January.
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Next to nothing 🤔 It doesn't require expert analysis to reasonably deduce that the sustained uptick was a direct result of devastating, aseasonal wildfires in Los Angeles — a deadly, destructive event that made these destructive weather systems impossible to ignore.
After the wildfires in Los Angeles were extinguished, stories of homeowners whose policies had been canceled just prior to the fires were commonplace.
Those with intact policies often didn't fare better, with rife reports of coverage gaps, slow payouts, and insurance scams.
Removing First Street's insights about a property's risk of flood, wildfire, and other forms of extreme weather doesn't negate that risk; it merely deprives buyers of information.
What's being done about it?
Ultimately, Eby emphasized that the feature was not controversial when "housing markets were roaring, and inventory was plentiful."
Risk data "didn't suddenly become inconvenient; it became harder to ignore in a stressed market," Eby added.
Although Zillow maintained that the data was still available, CNN noted it was "far less visibly" displayed on listings, underscoring the importance of keeping tabs on key climate issues.
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