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Homebuyers Are More Likely to Click on Climate-Risk Data After Major Disasters—But the Urgency Is Fleeting

via Business Wire

The share of Redfin users clicking into the climate-risk section of home listings nearly doubled after the 2025 Los Angeles wildfires started burning. The same effect took hold in Florida during hurricane season. In both instances, the bump in user engagement was short-lived.

House hunters on Redfin.com are more likely to click into the climate-risk section of home listings when major natural disasters hit, but it doesn’t take long for this effect to fade, according to a new report from Redfin, the real estate brokerage powered by Rocket.

In the 90 days leading up to the 2025 Los Angeles wildfires, Redfin users clicked into the climate-risk section of California home listings 4.2% of the time, on average. On January 8—the day after the fires began—that percentage jumped to 5.7%, and on January 12, it peaked at 7.8%. The clickthrough rate fell back to its pre-fire average at the end of March and has hovered around that level since.

“Humans often have short memories when it comes to natural disasters,” said Redfin Chief Economist Daryl Fairweather. “A major fire or storm can jolt homebuyers into paying attention to climate risk because the event feels fresh and likely to happen again, but this urgency is fleeting. That’s why local leaders have a small but crucial window after a disaster to educate people on disaster preparedness and resilience. Homeowners should think about natural disasters as an ongoing risk and have an action plan in case catastrophe strikes.”

This is based on an analysis of clickthrough rates in the “Climate” section of Redfin.com home listings. Climate-risk information in Redfin home listings is provided by First Street.

More than two-thirds (67.6%) of U.S. residents say living in a place with low risk of natural disaster is non-negotiable, according to a Redfin-commissioned survey of 4,000 respondents conducted by Ipsos in May 2025. But the reality is that many people live in these places anyway, often because they want to be close to family or they found a home they love. This may be starting to shift, though; more people moved out of than into flood-prone America for the first time since 2019 last year.

Homebuyer Engagement With Climate-Risk Data Also Spiked During Hurricane Season

Homebuyer engagement with climate-risk data also surged in Florida during the 2024 hurricane season, which included Hurricane Helene in late September and Hurricane Milton in early October.

In the 90 days leading up to Hurricane Helene, Redfin users clicked into the climate-risk section of Florida home listings 8% of the time, on average. By Sept. 29, 2024—three days after the storm made landfall in Florida’s Big Bend region—the clickthrough rate had increased to 9.4%. It peaked at 16.3% on Oct. 7, the same day a flood watch was issued for all of South Florida ahead of Hurricane Milton. Many cities declared states of emergency. Hurricane Helene was the deadliest hurricane to hit mainland America since Hurricane Katrina, and Hurricane Milton was one of the strongest hurricanes ever recorded in the Atlantic basin.

Florida’s clickthrough rate fell back to its pre-Helene average in mid-October 2024 and has hovered around that level since.

Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina were also impacted by these storms, but saw relatively small jumps in homebuyer engagement with climate-risk data.

National Clickthrough Rate Also Rose in Response to Hurricanes, Wildfires—But the Increase Was Less Dramatic

The 2024 hurricane season and the 2025 Los Angeles wildfires both fueled increases in the national clickthrough rate.

Nationally, Redfin users clicked on the climate-risk section of home listings 3.3% of the time the week before Hurricane Helene. That percentage started rising the week Hurricane Helene made landfall and peaked at 4.1% the week Hurricane Milton made landfall. It fell back to pre-Helene levels the week beginning October 21, 2024.

Similarly, the national clickthrough rate increased from 3.5% the week before the Los Angeles wildfires to 3.9% the week of the fires. It fell back to pre-fire levels the week beginning March 24, 2025.

It took roughly three months for the clickthrough rate to return to “normal” after the fires started burning, but it took less than one month for it to return to “normal” after the two major hurricanes in 2024. This may be because Floridians are more accustomed to major disasters than many Californians, for whom the January fires came as a shock. Wildfires are much harder to predict than hurricanes.

The national clickthrough rate also climbed slightly around the Fourth of July this year, when destructive flooding shocked Central Texas, killing 27 people at a Christian youth camp. It was 3.3% the week of the floods, and had risen to a peak of 3.6% by mid-July.

“While the increases in the national clickthrough rate are small, they are meaningful,” said Redfin Senior Economist Yingqi Xu. “It’s clear that the spike in Florida’s clickthrough rate during hurricane season and the spike in California’s clickthrough rate during the Los Angeles fires drove increases in the national clickthrough rate. The national uptick is more muted because it includes the behavior of house hunters in other states who weren’t affected by disasters. This indicates that natural disasters primarily impact the behavior of people searching for homes near the disaster zone—not those searching in other areas.”

The national clickthrough rate stood at 3.2% as of the end of October 2025.

It’s worth noting that many Redfin users likely don’t feel the need to click into the climate-risk section because they find the preview of this section sufficient—one reason clickthrough rates may appear low.

House Hunters in Mississippi and Louisiana Are Most Likely to Click into Risk Data

Redfin users clicked into the climate-risk section of Mississippi home listings 9.6% of the time in the third quarter—the highest clickthrough rate of any state. Next came Louisiana (9.2%), Vermont (8.9%), West Virginia (8.3%) and Florida (7.2%). The lowest clickthrough rates were in Washington, D.C. (2.4%), Nevada (3.2%), Nebraska (3.3%), Minnesota (3.4%) and Arizona (3.4%).

Mississippi and Louisiana are the two most vulnerable states in the Climate Vulnerability Index, a ranking by the Environmental Defense Fund and Texas A&M University. Both states are prone to hurricanes and tornados, and were devastated by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Louisiana and Mississippi rank in the top three when it comes to per-capita disaster losses over the past 45 years, according to an analysis by the Mississippi Independent.

Louisiana has particularly high homeowner’s insurance costs, in part due to high flood and storm risk. That may be one reason people searching for homes there are more likely to click into the climate-risk section of listings, as this section includes disaster insurance cost estimates. The average annual cost of homeowner’s insurance in Louisiana was $10,964 in 2024—higher than every state but Florida and up 38% from the year before. Insurify projects that will increase another 27% to $13,937 by the end of this year—the biggest increase of any state. By comparison, the average cost nationally is expected to be $3,520 by the end of 2025. Many Louisiana homeowners also buy separate flood insurance policies.

“The high cost of homeowner’s insurance in Louisiana is limiting people’s ability to afford homes,” said Jason Gale, a Redfin Premier real estate agent in New Orleans. “A lot of homebuyers have backed out of deals because they couldn’t find insurance that fit their budget. It’s critical that buyers find lenders that understand the nuance of their market because you don’t want to end up in a situation where your lender quotes you $150 a month for insurance and the actual cost ends up being $500.”

In Orleans Parish, where New Orleans is located, 99.1% of homes face high flood risk—the highest share of any county Redfin analyzed.

Gale said homebuyers can often assume the seller’s existing flood-insurance policy, allowing them to save time and money, but this isn’t the case with homeowner’s insurance.

To view the full report, including charts, a table with state-level clickthrough rates, and methodology, please visit: https://www.redfin.com/news/how-homebuyers-engage-with-climate-risk-data/

About Redfin

Redfin is a technology-driven real estate company with the country's most-visited real estate brokerage website. As part of Rocket Companies (NYSE: RKT), Redfin is creating an integrated homeownership platform from search to close to make the dream of homeownership more affordable and accessible for everyone. Redfin’s clients can see homes first with on-demand tours, easily apply for a home loan with Rocket Mortgage, and save thousands in fees while working with a top local agent.

You can find more information about Redfin and get the latest housing market data and research at Redfin.com/news. For more information about Rocket Companies, visit RocketCompanies.com.

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