Planning to own a home and not sure if the location has flood risk? A real estate website, realtor.com, may help you find properties with flood risk through flood score analysis.

The Real Estate Website, realtor.com

The real estate website, realtor.com, will begin publishing on its website today a flood score for each property to show its flood risk in the next 30 years.

The site is the first realty site to provide information

if the property is within the federal flood hazard area, and details on the flood score like the property's risk and previous flooding incidences in the area.

The disclosures are expected to increase the public awareness of flood risk and prompt property owners and communities to mitigation measures to prevent damage in their homes as climate change intensifies flooding, and analysts said.

According to Joel Scata of the Natural Resources Defense Council, the innovation is expected to "address a major shortcoming." However, he admits that policies informing the prospective homebuyers of a property's flood history still need to be crafted.

The realtor.com website has 86 million visitors every month and is the 78th most-visited website in the country.

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The Flood Score

The website partnered with a non-profit First Street Foundation, the developer of the flood score. Data for the flood score is from the First Street Foundation's nationwide analysis that estimated the current and future flood risk of 140 million properties.

The flood score ranges from 1 to 10, 1 indicates a minimal flood risk over the 30-year mortgage, while ten means extreme risk.

Clicking on the flood score will connect to the First Street's website, floodfactor.com. The site will show the change of flooding per property over the next 30 years, its flood risks in the neighborhood and county, and the number of properties flooded in the recent storm. It, however, does not indicate which properties were flooded.

The First Street's program got national attention. It showed that the number of properties that have a 1% chance of being flooded annually is twice more than the Federal Emergency Management Agency's estimate.

The analysis from First Street also indicated that at-risk properties would increase from 14.6 million to 16.2 million by 2050.

According to First Street founder and Executive Director Matthew Eby, the data-sharing agreement with realtor.com benefits every homeowner and homebuyer. "The owners now have what wasn't available before - a full-parcel understanding of flood risk today and how it will change over the next 30 years as the environment changes," he said.

The flood score and flood zone are based on FEMA maps that determine whether the property is located in a high-risk area and covered by insurance.

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Significance of the Flood Score Data

The information would avoid situations wherein buyers back out at the last minute upon knowing that the area has a significant flood risk. Leslie Jordan of realtor.com said., adding that the consumers should understand this critical information an early stage.

The disclosure will decrease the value of property in significant flood risk areas in coastal areas and inland.

Laura Lightbody, a project director of the Pew Charitable Trusts and had worked on flood-prepared communities, praised realtor.com and First Street Initiative for disclosing flood risk homes. Owning or renting properties located in flood zones are often left out of discussions.

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