Erasing a Home’s Risks on Zillow Doesn’t Make Them Go Away
We live in a golden age of magical thinking
I’m not just talking about the trillions of dollars being burned on artificial intelligence.
When it comes to our rapidly heating planet and its effects on our future, too many of us have adopted a strategy of simply ignoring reality to make it go away.
Consider the news that listings on the real estate site Zillow will no longer include climate-risk ratings from the private data firm First Street.
The ratings scored each home on its likelihood of being affected by wildfires, floods, high winds, extreme heat and air pollution.
“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,” Art Carter, chief executive officer of the California Regional Multiple Listing Service, a private database for real estate brokers and agents, told the Times.
Well, yeah. And maybe it should?
As reported by the New York Times, the decision follows complaints by homeowners and realtors that the listings were hurting sale prices.
Mark Gongloff Blooberg December 2, 2025
https://www.zillow.com/
Kommentarer