Environmental hazards present risk for all homeowners throughout the U.S. Certain areas are well known for the risks they entail, but there are those ZIP codes that still fly under the radar for environmental hazards despite being hot spots. 

According to recent research by ATTOM Data Solutions, 17.3 million single-family homes and condominiums with a combined estimated market value of $4.9 trillion are in ZIP codes with high or very high risk for at least one of four environmental hazards:

  • Superfunds (sites contaminated with pollutants and other harmful substances)
  • Brownfields (properties that may have hazardous substances, pollutants or contaminants present)
  • Polluters
  • Poor air quality 

The 17.3 million single family homes and condos in high-risk ZIP codes represented 25 percent of the 68.1 million single-family homes and condos in the 8,642 ZIP codes analyzed. A risk index for each of the four environmental hazards was calculated for each of the 8,642 ZIP codes, and the indexes were each divided into five categories of risk:

  • Very low
  • Low
  • Moderate
  • High
  • Very high. 

For the report, ATTOM Data Solutions analyzed 8,642 U.S. ZIP codes with sufficient housing trend data for the four environmental hazards.

A housing risk index was calculated for each of the four types of hazards in each of the 8,642 areas. The maximum index value for each index was 250 and the minimum value was 0.

Recommended For You

Want to continue reading?
Become a Free PropertyCasualty360 Digital Reader

Your access to unlimited PropertyCasualty360 content isn’t changing.
Once you are an ALM digital member, you’ll receive:

  • Breaking insurance news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
  • Weekly Insurance Speak podcast featuring exclusive interviews with industry leaders
  • Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
  • Critical converage of the employee benefits and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, BenefitsPRO and ThinkAdvisor
NOT FOR REPRINT

© 2025 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.

Denny Jacob

Denny Jacob is an associate editor for NU PropertyCasualty360. Contact him at [email protected].