🏠 FEMA Flood Zone & Property Risk API: Zillow/Redfin Enricher

Any US address in, a property risk dossier out. Give it street addresses, or the dataset of a Zillow / Redfin / Realtor scraper run, and every property comes back with its FEMA flood zone, the FEMA National Risk Index profile for 18 natural hazards, neighborhood demographics, ground elevation, and one low / moderate / elevated / high verdict with plain-English reasons.

Bulk · keyless (no API keys, no logins) · official US federal data · structured JSON · built for AI agents.

⚡ Why it's different

• Chains onto the scrapers you already use. Pick your Zillow/Redfin run's dataset: addresses and coordinates are auto-detected, and each listing's ID, URL and price ride along in sourceRecord.
• Five federal sources fused into one record: you don't need to stitch the Census geocoder, FEMA flood maps, FEMA NRI, the ACS and USGS together yourself.
• A verdict, not just a data dump. It flags Special Flood Hazard Areas, coastal V zones, top-percentile hurricane / wildfire / earthquake / tornado / flood loss rates and low elevation, and tells you why.
• Property-level hazard math. Besides FEMA's community rating, you get the exposure-normalized building loss rate: expected natural-hazard loss per $100k of building value per year, comparable across the whole country.
• Bulk-priced: a fraction of single-address report tools. Unmatched addresses are free.

📋 What you get (per property)

Field	Meaning
matchedAddress, latitude, longitude	Standardized address + coordinates (US Census Geocoder)
county, place, tractFips, countyFips	County, city, census tract and county FIPS codes
floodZone.zone, .zoneSubtype	FEMA flood zone (A, AE, AO, VE, X, D...) and subtype
floodZone.inSpecialFloodHazardArea	true = 1% annual chance flood area (flood insurance usually mandatory with a federal mortgage)
floodZone.baseFloodElevationFt, .firmPanel, .firmEffectiveDate	Base flood elevation, FIRM panel number and its effective date
hazardIndex.propertyLossRatePercentile	Where this tract's building loss rate ranks among all US tracts (0–100)
hazardIndex.expectedAnnualLossPer100kUsd	Expected natural-hazard loss per $100k of building value per year
hazardIndex.topHazards, .hazards	18 hazards with FEMA rating, loss-rate percentile and building loss rate
hazardIndex.communityRiskRating, .socialVulnerabilityRating, .communityResilienceRating	FEMA's official tract-level ratings
neighborhood.medianHomeValue, .medianGrossRent, .grossRentYieldPct	Tract home value, rent and the implied gross rent yield
neighborhood.medianHouseholdIncome, .ownerOccupiedPct, .vacancyRatePct, .medianYearBuilt, .population, .medianAge	Tract demographics (ACS 5-year)
elevationFt	Ground elevation in feet (USGS 3DEP)
verdict, flags, reasons, isFlagged	low / moderate / elevated / high + machine flags + human reasons
verdictComplete	false if a source couldn't be reached and the verdict is partial (flagged *_unavailable)
sourceRecord	id, url, price of the listing when enriching another actor's dataset

📥 Input

Field	Type	Meaning
addresses	array	US street addresses, one per line, or "lat,lon" points
datasetId	string	The dataset of a Zillow / Redfin / Realtor / any real-estate actor run to enrich
addressField	string	Optional dotted path if auto-detection misses (e.g. listingAddress.full)
maxItems	integer	Safety cap per run (default 500)
includeFloodZone / includeHazardIndex ($) / includeDemographics / includeElevation	boolean	Add-ons, all on by default
onlyFlagged	boolean	Return (and bill) only elevated/high properties: screen a big list cheaply
webhookUrl	string	POST flagged properties to Zapier / Make / n8n / your API

Example input: addresses

{
  "addresses": [
    "2100 Collins Ave, Miami Beach, FL 33139",
    "350 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10118",
    "29.9511,-90.0715"
  ]
}

Example input: enrich a Zillow scraper run, keep only risky listings

{ "datasetId": "<your Zillow run's dataset ID>", "onlyFlagged": true, "maxItems": 2000 }

📤 Output (one row per property)

Real output for a Miami Beach listing chained from a Zillow-style dataset (hazard list shortened):

{
  "input": "1500 Bay Rd, Miami Beach, FL, 33139",
  "matched": true,
  "matchedAddress": "1500 BAY RD, MIAMI BEACH, FL, 33139",
  "latitude": 25.787224, "longitude": -80.143605,
  "geocoder": "US Census Geocoder",
  "county": "Miami-Dade County", "place": "Miami Beach city",
  "tractFips": "12086004207", "countyFips": "12086",
  "sourceRecord": { "id": "44143364", "price": 1250000 },
  "floodZone": {
    "mapped": true, "zone": "AE", "inSpecialFloodHazardArea": true, "riskLevel": "high",
    "label": "High risk: 1% annual chance flood (Special Flood Hazard Area)",
    "baseFloodElevationFt": 8, "dfirmId": "12086C",
    "firmPanel": "12086C0317L", "firmEffectiveDate": "2009-09-11",
    "insuranceNote": "In a Special Flood Hazard Area: flood insurance is generally mandatory for federally backed mortgages."
  },
  "elevationFt": 2.9,
  "hazardIndex": {
    "nriVersion": "December 2025",
    "propertyLossRatePercentile": 55.2,
    "expectedAnnualLossPer100kUsd": 162,
    "communityRiskRating": "Very Low",
    "socialVulnerabilityRating": "Relatively Low",
    "topHazards": [
      { "hazard": "hurricane", "lossRatePercentile": 84, "rating": "Relatively Moderate" },
      { "hazard": "coastalFlooding", "lossRatePercentile": 82.1, "rating": "Relatively Moderate" }
    ],
    "hazards": {
      "hurricane": { "rating": "Relatively Moderate", "lossRatePercentile": 84,
                     "buildingLossRatePct": 0.0784, "tractExpectedAnnualLossUsd": 175775 }
    }
  },
  "neighborhood": {
    "population": 1823, "medianAge": 39.7, "medianHouseholdIncome": 125024,
    "medianHomeValue": 786800, "medianGrossRent": 2854, "grossRentYieldPct": 4.35,
    "medianYearBuilt": 1968, "housingUnits": 1771,
    "ownerOccupiedPct": 7.5, "renterOccupiedPct": 92.5, "vacancyRatePct": 45.1,
    "source": "ACS 2024 5-year (US Census Bureau, via Census Reporter)"
  },
  "verdict": "high",
  "isFlagged": true,
  "flags": ["special_flood_hazard_area", "low_elevation"],
  "reasons": [
    "FEMA flood zone AE: High risk: 1% annual chance flood (Special Flood Hazard Area)",
    "ground elevation 2.9 ft"
  ],
  "sources": ["US Census Geocoder", "FEMA National Flood Hazard Layer (NFHL)",
              "FEMA National Risk Index (December 2025)",
              "ACS 2024 5-year (US Census Bureau, via Census Reporter)",
              "USGS 3DEP Elevation Point Query Service"],
  "capturedAt": "2026-10-13T14:04:50+00:00"
}

How the verdict works

Verdict	When
high	In a FEMA Special Flood Hazard Area (A/V zones), or building loss rate in the top 5% of US tracts
elevated	Loss rate above the 80th percentile, or a key hazard (flood, hurricane, wildfire, earthquake, tornado, landslide, tsunami) in the top 3%
moderate	Shaded Zone X (0.2% flood), loss rate above the 60th percentile, a key hazard above the 90th, or elevation under 10 ft
low	None of the above

💰 Pricing (pay-per-event menu)

• property-enriched: base, per matched property (geocode + flood zone + demographics + elevation).
• hazard-profile ($ add-on): premium, per property with a FEMA National Risk Index profile.
• Unmatched addresses are not billed. With onlyFlagged, only the flagged properties returned are billed.

💡 Use cases

• Real-estate investors & wholesalers: run your Zillow/Redfin pull through it and drop (or price in) flood-zone and high-hazard deals before you call.
• Insurance agents & brokers: pre-qualify flood/wind/wildfire exposure for a book of addresses before quoting.
• Lenders & due diligence: SFHA status + FIRM panel for every collateral address in one bulk run.
• Proptech & AI agents: one call answers "is this address risky, and why?" with sources.
• Rental analysis: tract median rent, home value and gross yield next to the risk picture.
• Portfolio screening: score thousands of properties and alert only on elevated/high via webhook.

🤖 For AI agents (MCP)

One call, structured JSON, every field described. Ideal as a tool for real-estate, insurance and due-diligence agents. Example MCP server config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "property-risk": {
      "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=actors,docs,centorprat/fema-flood-zone-property-risk"
    }
  }
}

Claude Code: claude mcp add --transport http apify "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=actors,docs,centorprat/fema-flood-zone-property-risk" --header "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN>"

No extra setup: this Actor is callable from Claude, Cursor, ChatGPT or any MCP client through the Apify MCP server, and agents can find it on their own with the server's search-actors tool.

Call it from code:

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/centorprat~fema-flood-zone-property-risk/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=<YOUR_TOKEN>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"addresses":["2100 Collins Ave, Miami Beach, FL 33139"]}'

from apify_client import ApifyClient
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_TOKEN>")
run = client.actor("centorprat/fema-flood-zone-property-risk").call(run_input={"addresses": ["2100 Collins Ave, Miami Beach, FL 33139"]})
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item["matchedAddress"], item["verdict"], item["floodZone"]["zone"])

🔗 Chain it after a scraper (integrations)

1. Run any real-estate actor (Zillow Search, Zillow Detail, Redfin, Realtor...).
2. Open this actor, pick that run's dataset in 🔗 Enrich a Zillow / Redfin / Realtor dataset, and start.
3. Or automate it: add an Apify integration on the scraper ("run actor after success") that passes {"datasetId": "{{resource.defaultDatasetId}}"} to this actor.

🚀 Ready-made tasks (one click)

Pre-configured runs for the most common jobs. Open one, change the input, run:

• Flood Zone Lookup by Address (FEMA): Look up the FEMA flood zone, SFHA status, base flood elevation and FIRM panel for any US address, in bulk, with a risk verdict per property.
• Zillow & Redfin Listings: Flood and Hazard Risk: Add FEMA flood zone, hurricane/wildfire/earthquake risk and neighborhood data to every Zillow or Redfin listing you scraped. Bulk, per-property pricing.
• Hurricane, Wildfire & Earthquake Risk by Address: FEMA natural hazard risk for any US address: hurricane, wildfire, earthquake, tornado, flood. Loss percentiles, expected annual loss and a verdict.
• Neighborhood Income, Rent & Home Value by Address: Median income, home value, rent, rent yield, vacancy and owner-occupancy for the census tract of any US address. Official ACS data, bulk.

❓ FAQ

• Do I need an API key? No. Every source is a keyless public US federal service.
• Which countries? United States only (50 states + DC; territories where FEMA/Census data exists). Points outside the US are returned as unmatched and not billed.
• How accurate is the flood zone? It's the effective FEMA flood map (NFHL) polygon at the geocoded point, the same data FEMA's Map Service Center shows. For a lender-grade determination, order an official Standard Flood Hazard Determination (SFHDF).
• What if the community has no digital flood map? floodZone.mapped is false with a note. Some rural counties still only have paper FIRMs.
• Is the hazard data per house? FEMA's National Risk Index is published per census tract, so properties in the same tract share it. The flood zone and elevation are per point.
• What's expectedAnnualLossPer100kUsd? FEMA's annualized building loss rate across all 18 hazards, expressed per $100k of building value. Multiply by the structure value (not land) for a rough annual expected loss.
• Why can communityRiskRating be high while the verdict is low? FEMA's community rating grows with how much is built in a tract (exposure). The verdict uses the exposure-normalized loss rate, which is what matters for one building.
• Some addresses didn't match? The US Census geocoder misses some new builds, campuses and PO boxes. Pass "lat,lon" for those, or use a dataset that has coordinates. Unmatched addresses are free.
• How fresh is the data? Flood zones are the live FEMA layer; NRI is the latest FEMA release (shown in nriVersion); ACS is the latest 5-year release (shown in neighborhood.source).
• How fast is it? Typically 30–120 properties per minute at the default settings, depending on how loaded FEMA's public flood service is (40 properties took 20–80 s in our tests). Tract-level data is cached within a run.
• What if a federal service is down? Failed lookups are retried automatically. If one still can't be checked, the record says so (flags: ["flood_zone_unavailable"], verdictComplete: false) instead of silently giving a safer-looking verdict.
• Can I use it commercially? Yes. All sources are US federal government works in the public domain; please keep the attribution in sources.
• Is it a substitute for an inspection, appraisal or insurance quote? No. It's screening data for decisions and prioritization.

📜 Data & attribution

US Census Bureau (Geocoder, American Community Survey 5-year; read via the official Census API or the open-source Census Reporter API) · FEMA National Flood Hazard Layer · FEMA National Risk Index · USGS 3D Elevation Program. Public-domain federal data, fetched live, composed and returned; nothing stored.

🔗 Related actors

Part of one suite of keyless, agent-ready composers by the same developer:

• Shopify Store Leads + App Audit (Reviews, Email, Pixels): Shopify stores by niche, verified and audited for missing apps (reviews, email/SMS, upsell, loyalty, chat, subscriptions), pixels and theme: scored leads with emails.
• Google Maps Leads + Website Audit for Agencies: local businesses from Google Maps audited for website, Google profile, reviews, booking and tracking gaps: scored, explained leads with phone and emails.
• Domain Lookup API - DNS, MX, SPF, Tech & Contact Emails: DNS + live homepage → IPs, MX/SPF, tech, socials and public contacts per domain.
• Wikipedia & Wikidata API - Entity Facts, Summary & Pageviews: Wikipedia + Wikidata + pageviews → one structured brief per company, person or place.
• Country Economic Data API - World Bank GDP, FX & Holidays: World Bank + FX + public holidays → one market brief per country.
• Weather, Air Quality & Earthquake Risk API by Location: live weather + air quality + earthquakes → one clear/caution/hazard verdict per point, worldwide.
• Aircraft Tracker API (ADS-B) - Approach & Military Alerts: aircraft approaching a point with CPA/ETA + military/unidentified flags and alerts.
• NARA Catalog Extractor: US National Archives catalog search → digital-object download URLs + metadata.