Trends 2025: Climate risks, buyer behavior and client conversations 

Editor's note: Since 2006, the Swanepoel Trends Report has provided in-depth research and analysis to help leaders understand the forces shaping residential real estate. This exclusive series of excerpts highlights each trend featured in the 2025 report, which was released in November 2024.

How Climate Changes Influence Housing and Broker Strategy: Major climate events — wildfires, extreme heat, floods, hurricanes — are having a profound effect on parts of the country. Homeowners not only face more risk, but may be impacted by rising insurance rates (or a lack of insurance options) and changes in home values. How will that affect the future of real estate in those regions?  

The following excerpt, taken from T3 Sixty's 2025 Trends Report, looks at buyer behavior as it relates to climate risks, and outlines do's and don'ts for agents and brokers when talking with clients about climate-related issues. 

Climate change: Implications for the industry 

The frequency and severity of wildfires, the location and depth of flooding, more days of sustained temperatures above 100 degrees Fahrenheit and dwindling water reserves have all begun to drive some shifts in perspective, policy and practice.

Homebuyer behavior

Climate researchers predict climate will play an increasing role in the decisions homebuyers make about location in the future. Temperate regions, with renewable energy resources, water resources and irrigation systems and sustainable food, are expected to see high demand.

In 2025, however, climate does not play an outsized role in homebuyer decision-making. Americans are not only still moving into areas facing the issues just discussed, but they are also doing so at an unprecedented rate.

A Redfin analysis compared housing trends between 2021 and 2022 and found:

• 629,000 more people moved into counties most threatened by extreme heat.

• The most flood-prone counties gained 384,000 residents.

• Riskiest counties facing the greatest wildfire risk gained 426,000 net residents.

• More people were looking to move into than out of 25 of 34 drought-prone metro areas.

Climate decisions and generations

Currently, consideration of climate risk in the homebuying process depends on generation and region.

Millennial and Gen Z shoppers were more likely than other generations to consider at least one climate risk, according to a 2023 Zillow survey of approximately 12,000 prospective homebuyers.

Overall, just under a quarter (23 percent) of respondents were looking to move to places with fewer climate risks. About half (49 percent) were looking at areas with about the same risk, and 27 percent were searching in areas with higher climate risks.

Real estate brokers and agents

Real estate brokers and agents have a duty to inform their clients about all factors related to buying and selling homes.

However, experts T3 Sixty interviewed cautioned against real estate professionals trying to weigh in on what risk or non-risk to associate with a property. One problem is around the data. Reputable data may not exist. When it does, it can be very difficult to interpret in a contextually accurate way.

In educating and informing their clients, real estate professionals are encouraged to:

• Avoid getting in the middle between homeowners and mortgage lenders or insurers regarding climate concerns.

• Form relationships with local environmental managers to facilitate client access to resources that can answer their questions.

• Encourage buyers to find out about local or state climate action plans to better understand how their prospective neighborhood may be affected and susceptible to different initiatives.

• Support clients moving into areas with good building codes or robust grant programs to retrofit homes.

• Understand the availability of homeowners insurance for specific properties.

• Acknowledge the operating costs of owning a home, including how climate change impacts this, including taxes.

• Advise homeowners on appropriate preventative measures, such as proper drainage, weatherproofing, fireproofing and disaster preparedness for homes.

There is also an opportunity for brokerages and agents to research the climate forecasts for different areas of their market and regions and strategically focus on growing their business in the areas deemed to be climate havens.

Alternatively, they can assess which areas in their markets have higher risk and help coach homeowners on alternative locales with better climate outlooks when they are ready to move.

Read the full chapter: Digital and printed copies of the 2025 Swanepoel Trends Report are available for purchase at T3 Trends.

Note: T3 Sixty and Real Estate News share a founder, Stefan Swanepoel.