A homebuyer who is searching for properties in Raleigh and across North Carolina will notice something missing from Zillow’s listings. A climate-risk feature that once highlighted a home’s exposure to flooding, fire, and other extreme weather threats is not displayed anymore. This change has raised questions about transparency, accuracy, and the future of risk disclosures in real estate.
The removed tool used data from First Street, a private climate risk–modeling company, whose scores estimated the vulnerability of individual properties to flooding, extreme heat, wind, and wildfire. The feature, which debuted in late 2024, applied to tens of thousands of listings across the state. Zillow has since stripped the scores from its property pages, including roughly 73,000 listings in North Carolina.
The move, first reported nationally earlier this year, underscores growing tension within the real estate industry over how climate risk is measured, and who controls that information.
Industry Pushback and Zillow’s Decision
Real estate brokers and multiple listing services across the country pushed back shortly after the climate-risk scores went live. Some industry groups argued the models were inconsistent or unreliable, while others said the presence of high-risk labels discouraged buyers and depressed sale prices.
A recent academic study supports at least part of that concern. Research from the National Bureau of Economic Research found that homes flagged with higher flood or fire risk on Redfin, one of Zillow’s competitors, sold for approximately 1% less than comparable properties without those warnings.
At the request of the California Regional Multiple Listing Service (CRMLS), Zillow removed First Street’s risk scores without notifying users or issuing a public announcement. While the company has maintained that it still supports consumer access to climate information, the data is no longer shown directly on listing pages. Instead, Zillow now provides external links that allow users to view climate-risk reports on First Street’s website.
Zillow did not comment publicly beyond a brief statement noting its commitment to consumer education.
Other major platforms, including Redfin, Realtor.com, and Homes.com, continue to display First Street risk assessments and offer links to expanded reports.
Why North Carolina Is at the Center of the Debate
The conversation over climate risk disclosure carries particular weight in North Carolina, where severe weather has caused repeated and costly damage in recent years.
Western portions of the state were heavily impacted by remnants of Hurricane Helene in 2024, while central counties more recently absorbed flooding from Tropical Storm Chantal. Together with earlier storms and hurricanes, the cumulative damage across the state has exceeded $50 billion over the past decade, according to disaster estimates.
Despite the growing frequency of extreme weather, many homeowners remain unaware of their properties’ exposure, especially when those homes fall outside federally designated flood zones.
That gap is one reason climate-risk data has become such a sensitive topic.
The Flood Risk Disclosure Gap
Flood risk assessments in the U.S. have long relied on maps produced by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). However, researchers and advocacy groups say those maps underestimate actual danger, particularly inland and in rapidly developing regions.
First Street estimates that more than 13 million properties nationwide face substantial flood risk without adequate insurance coverage. The organization warns that underestimating this exposure has artificially inflated home values, creating what it describes as a “hidden real estate bubble.”
Nationwide, flood-prone properties may be overvalued by as much as $237 billion, First Street estimates. Much of that risk exists outside FEMA’s Special Flood Hazard Areas, where disclosure and insurance requirements are less stringent.
In North Carolina alone, First Street’s modeling suggests nearly 654,000 properties, roughly 12% of all homes in the state, sit in 100-year flood zones. That figure is nearly triple the total identified under FEMA’s most recent analysis.
State Rules Push Transparency Forward
While national standards lag, North Carolina has taken steps to strengthen disclosure requirements.
Since mid-2024, sellers in the state have been legally required to disclose a property’s flood history and flood-risk status. The change followed successful advocacy efforts from environmental and consumer groups seeking to make climate exposure more transparent in residential transactions.
The rule applies statewide and has already begun reshaping how homes are marketed, particularly in the Triangle region and other fast-growing metro areas.
According to local agents, buyers now ask far more questions about flood zones, drainage, stormwater infrastructure, and insurance availability than they did a decade ago.
How Agents and MLS Systems Are Responding
While Zillow reduced the visibility of climate-risk scores, other real estate organizations in North Carolina are moving in the opposite direction.
Doorify MLS, which serves more than 16 counties across central and eastern North Carolina, is expanding access to environmental and risk-related property data for its members. The system supports more than 15,000 Realtors and distributes over 63,000 listings to national platforms.
Doorify’s leadership says providing more data, not less, is essential for helping buyers and professionals make informed decisions.
Buyers using MLS tools can access public records, elevation data, and third-party platforms such as RealReports.ai and Realtors Property Resource. While no dataset is flawless, proponents argue that withholding information is far riskier than presenting it responsibly.
“Buyers still need to verify key details independently,” Fowler noted. “But access to information is the starting point.”
How Buyers Are Changing Their Approach
On the ground, buyer behavior is evolving.
Ten years ago, flood risk was often a secondary concern, said Chapel Hill real estate agent Tana Widdows. Today, it’s a central part of nearly every transaction conversation.
She says climate considerations now rank alongside school districts, commute times, and neighborhood amenities.
“People want homes that will maintain value over time,” Widdows said. “Resilience is becoming a real differentiator.”
She advises buyers to look beyond listing descriptions and disclosures by examining grading, drainage systems, crawl spaces, gutters, retaining walls, and nearby storm infrastructure. Reviewing floodplain maps, obtaining elevation certificates, and consulting insurance professionals are now standard steps for many clients.
In some cases, climate risk can be a deal-breaker. Widdows recalls buyers walking away from homes after learning flood insurance was unavailable or prohibitively expensive.
“If someone is choosing between two similar properties and one carries significantly less risk,” she said, “the safer option usually wins.”
What the Zillow Change Signals
Zillow’s decision to remove visible climate-risk scores does not eliminate the underlying risk. What it does is to simply shift the burden back onto consumers to find and interpret that information independently.
Whether other platforms follow suit remains unclear. For now, the episode highlights a broader struggle within real estate: balancing transparency with market impact as climate risks become impossible to ignore.
As storms intensify and data improves, experts expect disclosures around flood and climate exposure to become more common, not less. The question is whether the industry will lead that shift or resist it.
Home buyers in North Carolina see the message, and it’s becoming increasingly clear: climate risk is now part of the cost of homeownership, whether it appears on a listing page or not.
