Sunlight, Weather and Childcare: A Year of New Data on Redfin Home Listings
In 2026, Redfin added information about sunlight, weather, childcare access and more to home listings. Here is everything you need to know about what’s new.
A home listing has always been good at telling you about a house: the square footage, the year it was built, the number of bedrooms. Historically, it has been less good at telling you what living there is actually like. Does the kitchen get morning sunlight? How hot are the summers? Is there a daycare within walking distance?
Those are the questions we set out to answer this year. Multiple new data sets arrived on Redfin in 2026, and they now sit alongside other information that was already there, including scores about a property’s walkability, transit access and climate.
Sunscore shows exactly how much sunlight a home gets
Natural light is one of the hardest things to judge from listing photos or a single showing, and it matters more than you might expect. In a recent Redfin survey, nearly 70% of people said the amount of sunlight in their home affects their satisfaction with where they live, and 11% said it is non-negotiable when searching for a home.
Sunscore is a property-level rating from 0 to 100 that shows how much sunlight a home gets. We co-created it with Shadowmap, a sunlight analysis platform, using 3D modeling that tracks how shadows fall across a home throughout the day and across the seasons. Here are the score breakdowns:
☀️ 0-50: Low sunlight
☀️ 50-70: Moderate sunlight
☀️ 70-80: Good sunlight
☀️ 80-90: Very good sunlight
☀️ 90-100: Exceptional sunlight
Each score accounts for the home’s 3D shape and structure, surrounding buildings, trees and terrain, the sun’s position throughout the day, and seasonal changes across the year. In other words, it catches the things you would only discover after moving in—like a neighboring building that blocks the afternoon light in winter.
And it is not only about comfort and aesthetics. A home’s sun exposure also says something about its solar potential, which can translate into real savings on energy costs over time.
Weather data helps predict precipitation and heat
Weather turns out to be one of the biggest reasons people move. In a recent Redfin survey conducted by Ipsos, 22% of Americans planning to move to another state said better weather was motivating the move—the most cited reason out of nearly 30 options, ahead of affordability, job opportunities and moving closer to family. Another 21% said concerns about climate change or natural disasters were shaping where they wanted to live.
In July, we partnered with The Weather Company, owner of The Weather Channel app and weather.com, to bring historical weather data to every for-sale listing on Redfin. As our exclusive historical weather provider, it supplies the same data hundreds of millions of people check every month.
Each listing shows ZIP code-level averages for:
- Temperature
- Precipitation
- Snowfall
- Humidity
- UV index
Consider this information the difference between the weather on the day you tour a home and the climate you might actually live in.
Childcare data displays daycare and preschool options
For families with young children, childcare access can determine a neighborhood’s fit as much as school boundaries do. However, it’s historically been missing from the home browsing experience. Redfin is the first major real estate portal to partner with Winnie, the largest marketplace for childcare and early education in the U.S., to bring local childcare information to for-sale listings.
Nearby daycare and preschool options now appear on for-sale home listings with details that determine whether a spot is realistic for your family, such as:
- Distance from the home
- Tuition
- Licensing status
- Financial aid availability
- Staff certifications
Location scores capture everything from wellness access to noise
While Walk Score, Bike Score and Transit Score already existed on home listings, Redfin has expanded these location scores to capture more information about a neighborhood’s vibe using Local Logic data.
- Quiet Score: Level of noise nearby
- Wellness Score: Quantity of amenities within walking distance that cater to physical activity and healthy eating
- Vibrancy Score: Level of street activity nearby
Start exploring homes on Redfin.com or the Redfin app to learn everything you’d want to know about a property. Need a place to start? Use Redfin’s conversational search to begin your homebuying journey.
