Montreal-based location intelligence platform Local Logic has partnered with climate change risk data company ClimateCheck, the two companies announced on Thursday.
Local Logic customers, including listing portals, real estate franchises and brokers that use the company’s data and plug-ins, will now have access to ClimateCheck’s climate change risk data alongside other location data provided by Local Logic.
ClimateCheck generates property-specific climate-related hazard ratings from 1-100, cluing consumers into risks associated with heat, storm, fire, drought and flood for any property across the U.S. The rating, with 1 being low risk and 100 being very high risk, is based off of future risk and how much risk levels stand to change in years to come.
As the name suggests, Local Logic’s data is likewise highly localized, and provides users with data for over 250 million addresses in the U.S. and Canada on features like schools, neighborhood character, local businesses, public transportation options, demographics, nearby comps and more.
The two companies’ shared interested in local data insights is one major reason the partnership was a good fit, Cal Inman, CEO of ClimateCheck, told Inman. (Cal Inman is the son of Brad Inman, founder of Inman Group. Inman Group is not affiliated with ClimateCheck in any way.)
Cal Inman | Credit: LinkedIn
“It’s the presentation of insightful information around a specific property, or neighborhood or any location,” Inman said. “So I think having [Local Logic] offer our product to all their customers and future customers, it’s just fitting. You can go to one place and get a lot of location-specific information you can append to your website or listings or neighborhood insight pages.”
In recent months, ClimateCheck data has been added to a number of notable search portals, including Movoto by OJO Labs, RealScout and Redfin. Inman said the company’s goal is to ultimately get its data added to every real estate listing, especially with consumers becoming increasingly concerned about the hazardous impacts of climate change.
“Consumers want to know [the risks],” Inman said. “They read about it every day, and they’re experiencing all these natural hazards and increased frequency of them and increased tendency.”
Amid a year of record flooding, hurricanes, wildfires, heatwaves and other extreme weather events in the U.S., the percentage of Americans that believe global warming is currently happening increased from 70 percent of Americans in March 2021 to 76 percent in September 2021, according to a recent survey by the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication.
An all-time high of 70 percent of Americans are also now “very worried” or “somewhat worried” about global warming, with the proportion of those who are “very worried” having increased 10 percentage points in the last six months.
Vincent-Charles Hodder | Credit: LinkedIn
“The synergy of our two data sets will ensure residential and commercial real estate professionals and their clients are able to assess an area’s risk for climate-related disasters and make more informed decisions about where they invest in, purchase or sell a property,” Vincent-Charles Hodder, co-founder and CEO of Local Logic, said in a statement.
“Changes in our climate represent an increasingly significant risk to millions of properties across the country, and a proper assessment of climate-related hazards are an increasingly important part of the buying and selling process,” Inman added in a statement.
“By combining Local Logic’s location intelligence insights with our Climate Rating solution, consumers can unlock an understanding of these rapid shifts and how they might affect their assets in the future — allowing them to make more informed decisions about where they live and how to better invest their resources.”