Pirate's Cove

There’s nothing the doomsday cult won’t get their claws into

Zillow adds climate risk scores to property listings

When Leslie Watson and her husband were searching for their first house in the San Francisco Bay Area, they had a few priorities. They wanted an enclosed backyard for a dog and a spare room for playing video games. Also on the wish list: low climate risk.

“The main thing that I was the most concerned about was the flooding, because there are a lot of creeks that run through the area,” Watson said.

Yeah, and creeks never flooded before CO2 went above 350ppm, you know

Watson is especially aware of the risks. She’s a high school science teacher whose classes address the climate crisis.

“My opinion is, if you’re looking for a home now and you’re not considering climate risks, you’re not really very in touch with what is happening,” she said.

Home buyers now have more tools to assess those risks. This month, Zillow, the country’s largest real estate search platform, announced it’s adding information about climate hazards, and how they might grow over time, to all of its property listings. Users will be able to scroll down to see a risk score for flooding, wind, wildfire, extreme heat and air quality, along with insurance recommendations to protect against related losses.

In a recent customer survey, the company found that more than 80% of potential home buyers said they consider climate risk in their decisions. More than half of new listings on Zillow are at risk of extreme heat, Olsen said. Meanwhile, 17% face major wildfire risk and 13% major flooding risk — risks scientists say will continue to grow as average global temperatures rise.

In other words, they want to know what the weather is like in the area, which they can obtain with a quick search. Though, lots of people don’t. I can’t tell you the number of people who move to NC and are shocked by the heat. Seriously, it can be 50F outside but it feels much warmer with the sun out. That there are years were you might turn the AC on in February, because it’s high 50s low 60s and the sun is sending the thermostat up. There are many days where the heat never turns on during the day when the sun is shining in the winter. They’re shocked by pollen season. They’re shocked by thunderstorms. That’s the weather. It happens. It’s not climate doom

She and her husband ended up buying a place in San Leandro, California, and they did pretty well with the information they did have.

According to Zillow’s newly added climate information, their house faces minimal flood and fire risk — one out of ten, according to First Street’s scale. The biggest risk was air quality — seven out of ten — but that didn’t surprise Watson. They’re near an industrial area and the Oakland airport.

Air quality is environmental, not climate, and, not surprising being an urban area. But, the climate cult has placed all true environmental issues under their banner. Anyhow, I took a look at a Zillow listing near me, which would be very representative of my location. Hilariously, for all the big deal being made about it, you have to scroll almost all the way to the end of the listing

Not one of those is ‘climate change’. Even thought the river is right there, I’m not even in a 1,000 year flood zone. Fire? Not really. Nor is it climate. Wind? Well, yeah, it’s the South. Air quality? It’s actually pretty good here on the edge of Raleigh. Nor is that climate. Heat? Well, sheeit, y’all, it’s Raleigh. It gets hot. Duh.