The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) released an online risk analysis tool for property owners, community leaders, financial institutions, policymakers, and other stakeholders to provide insight into which areas are most likely to be negatively impacted by natural hazards.

FHFA’s Mortgage Loan and Natural Disaster Dashboard allows users to combine FHFA’s public use database (PUDB) with data on previous disasters and other analysis from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the agency stated in a release. Users can identify areas of the country with elevated disaster risk based on several factors, and which of those areas have concentrations of properties financed with loans acquired by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Federal Home Loan Banks.

The agency added the hope for this new tool is to provide greater visibility of communities already facing economic challenges that are susceptible to natural disasters, as more intense storm seasons with higher human and financial costs continue.

“Climate risks, especially natural disasters, pose a serious threat to housing and other critical infrastructure, particularly in vulnerable communities,” FHFA Director Sandra Thompson said. “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.”

FHFA stated the dashboard utilizes data from three publicly available sources: the PUDB provides a geographic breakdown of loans acquired by FHFA’s regulated entities; FEMA’s National Risk Index identifies communities most at risk for 18 types of natural hazards; and FHFA’s Duty to Serve high-needs rural areas data pinpoints rural areas in the country characterized by a high concentration of poverty and substandard housing.

Mortgage data in the dashboard were updated as of 2022 and the data on past natural disasters were updated as of 2023, FHFA stated, while the Census tracts were drawn from the 2020 U.S. Census. Users can view nationwide mortgage data at the Census-tract level overlaid with expected annual damages for 18 different types of natural disasters.

The dashboard also measures other factors affecting an area’s vulnerability to certain disasters. These include a social vulnerability index, a community resilience index, and an additional layer enabling users to analyze FHFA’s Duty to Serve high-needs rural areas.