Has this house’s area flooded before?

Buying or renting? Enter the street address or ZIP code. You get the federal flood insurance claims filed in that ZIP since 1978 — how many, how much was paid, which years were worst and which flood zones the buildings were in — plus a short checklist, ready to print. Drawn from 1,556,885 claims and $64.16B in payouts across Florida, Illinois, Louisiana, New York and Texas.

What this check can and cannot tell you

FEMA publishes every National Flood Insurance Program claim, but strips out the street address for privacy and keeps the ZIP code. So this check answers “how often have insured buildings around here flooded?”, not “did this exact house flood?”. A ZIP with dozens of claims across many different years is a place where flooding is routine; a ZIP with one or two claims in a single hurricane year is a different story.

The data only counts buildings that carried federal flood insurance. Outside high-risk zones few homes do, so a quiet record there is weaker evidence than a quiet record inside one. Private flood policies are not included either.

How the lookup works

A street address is matched by the U.S. Census Bureau’s public geocoder to its ZIP code and county. A ZIP code is used as is. We do not store what you type.
We load the county’s claim records — every claim grouped by year, ZIP code and flood zone — and add up the rows for your ZIP.
Nothing is estimated: the counts and dollar amounts are FEMA’s, as of 2026-09-07.

Common questions

Does a high claim count mean I should not buy?: Not on its own — it means you should look closely at the specific property: its flood zone, its elevation, and what the seller says about past water. Many homes in busy ZIP codes never flooded, and some in quiet ones did.
How do I find out if this exact house flooded?: Ask the seller in writing about past flooding and claims, check your state’s disclosure form, and ask an insurance agent — see how to check if a house flooded.
What flood zone is the property in?: The official answer is on FEMA’s Flood Map Service Center; the report above links straight to it for the address you entered. See flood zones explained.
Are the dollar amounts adjusted for inflation?: No. They are the amounts FEMA paid at the time, so older claims look smaller than they would today.