The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) is now offering an online risk analysis tool designed to offer geographic estimates for physical risks from natural disasters along with nationwide data on housing and the mortgage market.
The new Mortgage Loan and Natural Disaster Dashboard is designed to provide property owners, community leaders, financial institutions, policymakers, and other stakeholders with better insight into which areas were most likely to incur greater damages from hurricanes, flooding, wildfires, and other types of natural hazards. The tool can be used in combination with the FHFA’s Public Use Database (PUDB), which offers data on previous disasters and other analysis from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
The tool also informs users regarding which high-risk areas for natural disasters also have concentrations of properties financed with loans acquired by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Federal Home Loan Banks. The tool’s data on mortgages were updated as of 2022 and the data on past natural disasters reflected in the online tool were updated as of 2023, while the Census tracts were drawn from the 2020 Census.
“Climate risks, especially natural disasters, pose a serious threat to housing and other critical infrastructure, particularly in vulnerable communities,” said FHFA Director Sandra L. Thompson. “Providing geographic information on disasters as well as concentrated exposures of loans acquired by our regulated entities can help policymakers and the industry develop solutions to better safeguard those communities from the impact of future catastrophes.”
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