Another Biden-era scam using “Flood Factor” data to destroy property values has now been elevated to the highest levels of government, as reported by the Daily News last week.
Liberty Matters reported this story in July, but since then, an investigation by Consumers’ Research (CR), a nonprofit government watchdog, has exposed the depth of First Street’s “flood risk information” scam and their partnering with multiple federal agencies to elevate their status with third-party real-estate platforms.
First Street provides these platforms with “Flood Risk Information” using a “Flood Factor” property-level scoring from 1-10. The effect of a higher number lowers the value of the property by claiming it’s a “higher” risk of flooding.
This factor number is then provided to online listing companies like Zillow and Realtor.com without the knowledge or permission of the owner or the listing realtor. These scores can be materially wrong and difficult for the property owner to overcome.
CR has sent a letter requesting all federal agencies affiliated with First Street to “publicly renounce or suspend” any partnership or relationship so as to not appear to endorse First Street’s property-level scores for listing purposes.
One federal agency utilizing First Street’s flood data that partnered with them is the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which in July of 2024, announced the “Environmental Justice (EJ) Mapping and Screening Tool. (EJScreen).” On EPA’s website, EJScreen is identified as “EPA’s environmental justice (EJ) screening and mapping tool that utilizes standard and nationally-consistent data to highlight places that may have higher environmental burdens and vulnerable populations…The tool also provides a variety of powerful data and mapping capabilities that enable users to access environmental and demographic information across the entire country, at high spatial resolution, displayed in color-coded maps and standard data reports.”
Other agencies include: The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, which in September of 2022, announced its collaboration with First Street’s Climate risk data; the Federal Housing Finance Agency; Consumer Financial Protection (CFP); the Federal Reserve; U.S. Geological Survey (USGS); Comptroller of Currency (COC); Office of Financial Research; Fannie Mae; U.S. Census Bureau; and the Congressional Budget Office.
Online platforms that consistently use the flood data of First Street include Zillow, Redfin and Realtor.com.
Complaints have been reported in multiple outlets across the country. WLOS News 13 in Asheville, NC, reported in July of homeowners whose listings showed a “10/10 Extreme” Flood Factor scores, even though there never was any flood history.
The Better Business Bureau reported First Street’s data “misaligned flood maps” and had a ditch drawn through someone’s house.
CR stated “First Street’s own dispute policy states: “As a rule, we do not update Factor scores based on individual requests or disputes.” In other words, First Street won’t resolve any complaints about their data and the only way to contact them is by email.
Some are questioning how Zillow and other online realtors can legally list properties that have not contracted with them. However, they routinely download all the property listing information and photos of the properties of respected real-estate agents and companies without their knowledge or permission.
The only way they find out about their properties being listed is when the home or land owner finds their information listed on Zillow or they get a call from a potential buyer who makes a lowball offer based on First Street’s flood factor data.
For example, Liberty Matters reported that a 128-acre Tennessee estate with a personal residence listed at $6.2 million. First Street gave the property a 9/10 climate risk score, while FEMA listed this as 1. When the realtor complained, Zillow changed the listing to off market but left the listing up with a new value of $401,010.
In another instance, the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT) reported a Chappaqua, New York couple filed a lawsuit against First Street claiming that flood risk data provided by First Street Technology is to blame for their home selling for $100,000 less than they paid for it three years earlier.
These types of scenarios are being discovered nationwide and the Trump administration has been notified that these agencies’ endorsement of this flawed data is destroying the value of citizen’s private property and their ability to sell at a fair market value.
