Report: ‘Climate risk scores’ featured on homebuying platforms devalue homes

By Tate Rosentreter
The Center Square

“Climate risk scores” featured on homebuying platforms such as Zillow and Realtor devalue houses without authority, the matter being further complicated by asset managers with climate agendas having connections to the real estate platforms, a new report from the American Energy Institute and Consumers’ Research says.

Senior fellow at the American Energy Institute Molly Vogt told The Center Square that “the unregulated private company First Street is quietly assigning subjective ‘climate risk’ scores to homes listed on major real estate platforms, including Zillow, Redfin, Realtor.com, and Homes.com.”

“Those scores routinely contradict official FEMA flood maps, undermine property values, and influence homebuyers without any transparent methodology or meaningful appeals process,” Vogt said.

“Even more concerning, BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street, the same asset managers that championed destructive Net-Zero initiatives across corporate America, hold significant ownership stakes in the platforms distributing these scores,” Vogt said.

“American homeowners deserve to know who is shaping these property valuations, how these scores are calculated, and what safeguards exist to protect them from inaccurate or misleading assessments,” Vogt said.

“Congress must investigate before more American families watch their biggest financial asset quietly eroded by an unaccountable, Wall Street-linked scoring system,” Vogt said.

Vanguard, First Street, Zillow and Realtor did not respond to requests for comment from The Center Square.

BlackRock referred The Center Square to a section of its Global Voting Spotlight, where it is stated: “Setting, executing, and overseeing strategy are the responsibility of management and the board.”

“As one of many minority shareholders on behalf of our clients, BlackRock does not direct a company’s strategy or its implementation,” the resource said.

“BlackRock Investment Stewardship does not act collectively with other shareholders or organizations in voting shares and does not follow any proxy research firm’s voting recommendations,” the resource said.

State Street declined to comment when reached.

Executive director of consumer protection organization Consumers’ Research Will Hild told The Center Square that “First Street’s politically motivated, unregulated climate-risk scores are eroding American home values by implying federal scientific backing, when in reality they are using their own arbitrary scores to push a climate agenda.”

“By pushing activist-driven modeling, First Street is denying homeowners any meaningful path to challenge the damage being done to their largest asset,” Hild said.

“It’s no coincidence that Wall Street giants like BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street hold major stakes in the platforms pushing these scores, giving them yet another lever to impose ESG agendas on American families,” Hild said.

According to the report released by the American Energy Institute and Consumers’ Research, the First Street climate risk scores that appear on homebuying platforms “lack statutory authority, formal appeals, and frequently contradict FEMA maps.”

The report said that “a documented $6.2 million case study shows buyer interest collapsing and prices dropping after a private score assigned a 9/10 flood risk to a FEMA Zone X (minimal risk) property.”

The report also noted that “BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street hold 19% to 25% combined ownership stakes in the parent companies distributing these scores.”

“If private climate modeling is shaping U.S. home values without regulatory accountability, and the same institutional investors promoting Net-Zero and ESG agendas hold significant influence over the platforms distributing these scores, Congress must investigate immediately,” the report said.