Guide · For agents
Showing buyers the flood zone and storm surge during a Florida showing
Put three lines from public maps on your phone screen: the FEMA flood zone and whether the lot is in the 100-year floodplain, the state's storm surge category, and the evacuation zone. Since 1 October 2024 the seller of a Florida home must also hand the buyer a flood disclosure about past flooding, claims and federal aid (section 689.302); the map does not replace it. Show the map, point to the seller's form, and send price and elevation questions to an insurance agent and a surveyor.
What the seller's disclosure covers, and what it does not
Section 689.302 of the Florida Statutes requires the seller of residential real property to complete a flood disclosure at or before the time the sales contract is signed. The form opens with a warning that homeowners' policies do not cover flood damage, then asks the seller to mark whether they:
- know of any flooding that damaged the property while they owned it (added from 1 October 2025);
- filed a flood claim with any insurer, the National Flood Insurance Program included;
- received federal help for flood damage, FEMA's included.
It defines flooding as overflow of inland or tidal water, rapid runoff from a river, stream or ditch, or standing water that stays after rain. Note what the form leaves out: it asks about history, not about the map. It names no flood zone and no surge category. A house in zone X can have taken water in a storm; a house in zone AE may never have. That is why buyers want both.
What to put on screen
- The flood zone, with its share of the lot. A large lot can straddle AE and X; the report splits the outline by zone, so you can say "the back third is AE" instead of guessing from the pin. Our guide to the zone letters has what each means.
- The storm surge category. Category 1 means seawater could reach the land in the weakest hurricane. It is a different map from FEMA's, made by the state, and it can mark a zone-X lot.
- The evacuation zone. The county orders evacuations by zone; a buyer moving from out of state rarely knows to ask.
- The layer over the street. Turn on Flood zones or Storm surge zones over the aerial and zoom out one step. Buyers read a picture of the block faster than a code.
How often it comes up
Of the single-family parcels that changed hands in a qualified sale between May 2025 and April 2026, this share sits in FEMA's 100-year floodplain, in a Category 1 surge zone, or in either one:
| County | Homes sold | In the 100-year floodplain | Surge Category 1 | Either |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monroe | 1,227 | 89.3% | 64.1% | 89.6% |
| Collier | 5,718 | 60.2% | 24.7% | 62.4% |
| Charlotte | 6,422 | 40.6% | 32.5% | 43.4% |
| Miami-Dade | 11,624 | 40.3% | 2.3% | 40.3% |
| Lee | 16,306 | 27.1% | 28.0% | 34.7% |
| Broward | 15,364 | 32.0% | 0.1% | 32.0% |
| Pinellas | 11,100 | 27.6% | 27.0% | 29.8% |
| Hillsborough | 17,337 | 15.4% | 12.1% | 16.2% |
| Sarasota | 9,635 | 12.5% | 8.7% | 14.7% |
| Duval | 13,573 | 3.5% | 3.9% | 5.7% |
| Palm Beach | 17,751 | 4.7% | 0.1% | 4.7% |
| Orange | 15,015 | 2.9% | 0.0% | 2.9% |
| Polk | 13,894 | 2.8% | 0.0% | 2.8% |
| All 67 counties | 303,738 | 13.8% | 6.6% | 14.9% |
Counted on 1 November 2026: parcels coded single-family (DOR use 001) with at least one one-parcel sale coded 01 or 02 in the Department of Revenue's sales file, the codes the Department treats as arm's-length; the window ends in April because later months are still arriving. In Lee and Duval, more homes sit in surge Category 1 than in the floodplain, so a showing that checks only FEMA misses them. Statewide, 34.0% of these homes are in an evacuation zone.
What not to promise
- "Zone X means it won't flood." X is outside the 100-year line, not outside risk. Say what the map shows and stop there.
- A premium, or whether a policy is required. That depends on the mortgage, the insurer and the building's elevation. See flood zone vs flood insurance, then hand the question to an insurance agent.
- The elevation. Only an elevation certificate from a surveyor says how high the floor sits.
- The seller's history. That is the seller's form to complete, not yours to summarize.
Where it stops
The map is a copy. Our flood zones were fetched from FEMA on 25 October 2026, the surge zones are the state's March 2026 release and the evacuation zones its July 2026 release. FEMA can remove a single building from the floodplain by letter, which no zone map shows. The county's emergency office decides evacuations, and the state's Know Your Zone page is its lookup.
On Map Views
Open the parcel on your phone and the report lists the flood zone with the share of the lot in each, whether it is in the 100-year floodplain, the surge category, the evacuation zone and the wetlands on the lot, beside the owner and sales. The layers draw over streets or aerials. For the phone layout itself, see a parcel map on your phone; for the full flood check, flood zone and storm surge.
FEMA's effective flood map, on its Flood Map Service Center, is the authority on a flood zone; the Florida Division of Emergency Management and the county on surge and evacuation zones. We show their public maps as published, and nothing here is legal or insurance advice.