Listings on Realtor.com will now include a fire factor rating from the nonprofit research group First Street Foundation and information from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Fire Service.
Homes listed on Realtor.com will now include property-specific wildfire risk information, making the News Corporation-owned listings portal the first to do so, the company announced on Monday,
Listings will include a free fire factor rating from the nonprofit research group First Street Foundation and information from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Fire Service, Realtor.com said in a news release.
The website already includes flood risk information on its listings, as an increasing amount of homes find themselves susceptible to damage from rising sea levels. That feature is now the second-most clicked datapoint on its listings, Realtor.com said, behind data on K-12 schools, Sara Brinton, lead product manager at Realtor.com told CNBC.
“Realtor.com was the first real estate site to display flood risk data on home listings and maps, which consumers have found to be extremely helpful in the buying process. As the likelihood of natural disasters like wildfire and flood increase, we want to provide as much information as possible for families to make informed decisions about where to live and how to protect their homes,” Brinton said in a statement. “By integrating wildfire risk data directly into maps and property listings, we can help homebuyers feel confident when making one of the biggest purchases of their lives.”
With the western United States entering wildfire season, an estimated one in five single-family homes in the nation are at risk for wildfire damage over the next 30 years. The risk is becoming an increasingly important factor homebuyers consider when shopping, as 71 percent of recent homebuyers took natural disasters into account when considering where to move, while 47 percent are more concerned about natural disasters than they were a year ago,…