American Stewards has been tracking the story that broke last year about online home and property listing platforms that use “climate data” ratings distributed by a government -funded organization called First Street Foundation.
This so-called “climate data” is used to rate properties and homes on a 1-10 risk scale. “Risks” include wildfires, floods, wind (hurricanes and tornadoes), even poor air quality.
Companies like Zillow.com, Realtor.com, and Homes.com use this information to create a “disaster discount” on properties with high risk scores normally unknown to the property owner or the realtor listing the property. It’s not until someone offers a “low ball” price based on the “disaster discount” for the listed property that the owner discovers this scam.
The Wall Street Journal has reported a backlash from the real-estate industry over the scoring mechanism by First Street. According to the WSJ story, this has prompted companies like Zillow to remove the scores from openly displaying them on the front page of the listing, but still include them when potential buyers click on further links.
According to the WSJ, “First Street, set up around a decade ago, dominates the supply of climate data for listings. The home-listing platforms pay to use its ratings and link through to its website.
“Its models combine detailed topographical and natural-disaster data with climate-change projections, forecasting risks 30 years into the future. This matches the duration of a standard home loan.”
This future forecasting has led to skepticism. James Doss-Gollin, an assistant professor of engineering and a climate-risk specialist from Rice University in Houston said: “Accurately estimating future flood risk at every property in a single city or watershed—let alone the entire United States—is fundamentally not possible given current knowledge.”
Stephanie Cross with Tennessee Real Properties first alerted this issue to American Stewards. She’s reported that homeowner’s complaints have been ignored and given boilerplate responses with no follow-up or resolution of their inquiries and demands.
The WSJ is now reporting there are other companies offering different models that lead to different conclusions as to values applied to homes for sale. In a lawsuit against First Street over the rating they gave to a property in New York, First Street admitted the score is a forecast and “not a statement of verifiable fact.”
That admission by First Street alone begs the question as to why and how they can even suggest a “climate data” score on any property with any legitimacy.
Other property owners discovering this fraud are complaining they don’t have the finances to hire an attorney to fight First Street’s rating system.
Something must happen and Congress or the Trump Administration needs to resolve this “climate hoax” and return common sense to home and property sales in America.
