Should you actually buy this house?
Audit flood, wildfire, hurricane, earthquake, extreme heat, and severe-storm exposure for any US address in 60 seconds — from public federal data, not listing-portal spin.
Latest Buyer Guides
What Is FEMA Flood Zone X?
A plain-English guide to what Zone X does and does not mean for home buyers.
How To Read A Climate Risk Report Before Buying
A framework for interpreting hazard scores, insurance notes, and action steps before closing.
Best Questions To Ask Before Buying In A High-Risk Area
A buyer checklist for homes with non-trivial flood, wildfire, storm, or heat exposure.
Explore all educational guides
Operational Framework
How does a Risk Before Buy lookup work?
Three steps from any US address to a plain-English risk brief. No spreadsheet, no logins, no waiting on a salesperson.
- 1
Enter any US address
Residential, commercial, or undeveloped land — all 50 states and 3,000+ counties are covered. No account required to start.
- 2
We aggregate 5 federal datasets
FEMA flood zones, NOAA storm history, USGS seismic maps, USDA wildfire layers, and EPA air quality — fused into a single composite score.
- 3
Get a plain-English action plan
A clear buy / negotiate / walk-away recommendation backed by 30-year projections, insurance cost estimates, and editorial analyst notes.
Premium Asset-Class Deliverable
What is inside a Risk Before Buy climate report?
- Six-hazard score dashboard: flood, wildfire, hurricane, earthquake, heat, and severe storm / tornado
- Per-hazard explanation, data confidence badge, and buyer action items
- 30-year federal climate projections to 2050–2055
- Insurance Overview: HO-3 baseline, required standalone perils, and last-resort / residual market estimate
- Nearby Comparison: lower-risk communities within 25 miles
- Methodology & Data Sources with federal citations
- Clear buy / negotiate / walk-away recommendation
- L3 Pre-Purchase Audit adds: parcel-level FEMA flood zone, Insurance Market Context, Historical Claim Density, and Negotiation Leverage Summary
Competitive Matrix
How does Risk Before Buy compare to listing portals?
A point-by-point comparison of what you actually get from each source.
| Analytical Parameter | Portal Tabs | Risk Before Buy |
|---|---|---|
| Multi-hazard scoring (6 hazards incl. severe storm / tornado) | No | Yes |
| 30-year climate projections | No | Yes |
| Insurance cost estimates (HO-3 + standalone perils) | No | Yes |
| Buy / negotiate / walk-away signal | No | Yes |
| Nearby lower-risk community comparison | No | Yes |
| Federal raw data citations | Partial | Yes |
| Parcel-level FEMA flood zone verification (L3) | No | Yes |
| Insurance market context & Premium Strain Index (L3) | No | Yes |
Federal data lineage
Which public sources back these scores?
Every score traces to a named federal dataset. We quote the source agencies and link to their primary documentation.
“The National Risk Index is a dataset and online tool to help illustrate the U.S. communities most at risk for 18 natural hazards.”
“The Storm Events Database contains records of storms and other significant weather phenomena having sufficient intensity to cause loss of life, injuries, significant property damage, and/or disruption.”
“The USGS National Seismic Hazard Model projects the likelihood of earthquake shaking of different intensities across the United States.”
“Wildfire Risk to Communities provides nationwide data about wildfire hazard and risk to homes and communities.”
Editorial by Open Data Collective Editorial. Published 2026-06-13. Last updated 2026-08-25. Full scoring rules: methodology.
Why trust us
Why should homebuyers trust these climate scores?
Open data, open methodology
Every dataset we pull and every normalization step we apply is documented publicly. You can audit what goes into your score.
No insurance kickbacks
We do not sell data to insurers and we do not accept payments to alter scores. Editorial sign-off is independent.
Refreshed quarterly
Federal sources are pulled on a 90-day cadence with retrieval timestamps stamped on every report.