Do you use Zillow? Although I am not planning on buying anytime soon (as in within the next year, maybe two), I spend quite a bit of time viewin available properties in the areas that my Fiancee and I would consider buying. Every time I find something that looks attractive on ZipRealty, I head straight to Zillow.com to see if they agree with the pricing.
In case you're not familiar, zillow.com is a free home value estimator web site. They use metrics such as square footage, local comps, sales records, type of dwelling, etc. to determine an estimate, they call a Zestimate.
It generally seems to be in the ballpark of what you would expect. The fun part is that Zillow offers Zestimates for all properties, not just the ones on sale. Curious about your neighbors? You can view their square footage, assessed value and property taxes paid. You can also view the past sales data on their house. This may be a case of TMI, but it's all public info anyway. Zillow just made it easy to access.
So, when I am researching homes, I find that Zillow often prices homes under the asking price. This is not too surprising. Anyone watching the market in most of the "bubble" areas knows that sellers have been stubborn about lowering prices, but watching inventories rise, and sales slow. To this point, I commend Zillow for getting it right. Sometimes, the Zestimate is above the asking price, to which you have to wonder, "then why hasn't it sold?"
In fact, in my neighborhood, there is a house that has been for sale for quite a few months. I'm not sure how long exactly, but I went to their open house at least four months ago. The listing does not provide any useful information, because they pulled the listing and reslisted it to reset the "Days on Market" number.
The house was originally listed for $890,000. It is a 3 bed/3 bath house on 5700 square feet. I originally thought it was too high. They have since come down to $850,000, but still it site, vacant, hosting a weekly open house. What does Zillow think? They're close, the Zestimate is $853,141. The house is newly remodeled inside, so all new counters, cabinets and fixtures. So, if it's worth $853k, and they are asking $850k, why hasn't it sold? Wouldn't a buyer have at least come close to the asking price, and a deal struck?
That's the problem with estimating values based on comps in a rising inventory, buyer's market. The most recent sales are not necessarily valid. The top three comps used for this Zestimate had a most recent sales date of June 2006 for one, but January 2006 for the other two. In this market, the difference between January and June (almost July) is significant.
The bottom line: Zillow is a fun and useful tool, but don't bet the house on it.
I never realized how public property taxes and home values are...Zillow.com is definitely a cool tool. In Hawaii, you can use Honolulu County Public Access and see who owns it in addition to taxes, sq footage, etc.
Posted by: financial freedumb | June 30, 2006 at 12:10 AM
Zillow uses public records which should show the last sale price, or the current assessed value.
In my case, it's off by about $30,000 as the assessed value is not in line with actual market conditions which have the prices higher. (Lower assessed value means my taxes are lower, so I'm not going to complain.)
I just access my county courthouse online to lookup recent sale/previous sale prices to get an idea for what a house I'm interested in is selling for.
Posted by: Todd | June 30, 2006 at 08:54 AM
I have found Zillow to be pretty inaccurate in my area. But it is better than nothing. It does give some house specs, even though the price may be way off.
Posted by: Laws Finance | July 01, 2006 at 09:16 AM
The Washington Post's Real Estate section has a Recent Sales database that looks up the county records for sales. It's rather interesting since you can search by name, street address, etc.
Posted by: mapgirl | July 05, 2006 at 08:22 AM
Hi, it's David G from Zillow.
The short answer is that "it depends on where you are". We measure and report our accuracy by metro area, state and county -- you'll find that data here: http://www.zillow.com/howto/DataCoverageZestimateAccuracy.htm
Note that we also report data coverage on that page -- there's a strong correlation between the amount of data we have and our Zestimate accuracy -- as we collect more data, accuracy will further improve.
Thanks for posting.
Posted by: David G | July 10, 2006 at 11:15 AM
Whoa, Zillow commented on my blog. How crazy. Thanks for the comments David G. As I mentioned in the post, I think Zillow is an awesome tool, but obviously, home buyers or sellers should do their due dilligence to determine a fair price.
Posted by: lamoneyguy | July 10, 2006 at 12:44 PM
I love Zillow!! I do agree though that Zillow prices are a bit high, at least for the market I live in. It so comes down to the individual house, I don't know how they will ever really really nail the pricing model. But, here's what I like about Zillow: One : it gives you more data. It gives you comparison data points such as other homes in the neighborhood and their value, plus what they recently sold for (if they have recently been sold). Can also give you data such as whether or not the improvements done on a certain house went through a permit process (thus increasing the value of the house; the flip of this is if you know of a house that has been improved upon, but the assessment hasn't gone up, well that's due to no permits, which can be a bad thing). Two: you aren't dependent on the realtor anymore for setting price or setting bid offer. I would have lovedlovedloved for Zillow to be around when I bought my houses (I have bought 3). I had no other sources for setting an offer except my gut and my realtor pushing a certain bid. With realtors getting 6% commission, it's time for a new model, folks.
Posted by: seattle | July 27, 2006 at 04:55 PM
I love Zillow too, but the prices are way off for Massachusetts & Florida. It is a great tool otherwise, and I Zillowed every house I looked at when I moved the Florida. Another couple of years and "zillowed" will be added to the dictionary. I know Realtors hate it!
Posted by: Mike A | March 19, 2007 at 02:52 PM
I used Zillow too when I was searching to buy the land that I now own. Zillow may be accurate in Metropolitan areas, it's not so accurate in less populated areas. Also, Zillow does not consider the view (which is a significant factor in home price) of the property in its calculation. And Zillow is not up-to-date in areas where homes sales are sporadic. There's a house next to the land I bought, but it's still listed on Zillow as vacant land (although based on county record, the house was completed almost two years ago). Despites all that, Zillow provides a good negotiating tool. If you use Zillow estimates combining it with county sales records (which is now available online), you can get a pretty good idea what the proprty is worth without using an agent.
Posted by: H. L. | March 21, 2007 at 02:31 PM
The short answer is that Zillow is a waste of time for consumers and was created by a group of people who think that real estate commisssions are too high.
Anyone who has any experience at all with buying and selling homes and has taken the time to check, knows what a worthless waste of time zillow is.
The old adage you get what you pay for comes to mind quickly when I think of companies like zillow and Trulia. These are third party listing sites that are creating middlemen in real estate transactions that will ultimately cost consumers more money - not help. Tech savvy REALTORS and consumers alike need to come to understand that they are actually bad for real estate and for consumers before they begin to cost consumers more money. It's bad enough that they have been able to fool as many consumers as they have. Why should anyone give them information that can already be had for free so that the can start charging people like me for my information which I am already happy to provide?
As a REALTOR, I love them. The estimates are so bad, it makes them look inadequate and me smart.
Posted by: Ryan Ward | April 16, 2007 at 05:26 AM
Zillow.com should change the name from "Zestimates" to a more appropriate name "GUESS-IDIOTS"
Posted by: Ron Astak | July 27, 2007 at 07:58 PM
Well the accuracy of Zillow is quite bad. I live in a townhome complex and they rate several house on my block zillow says are worth 100-150k more than mine despite having fewer options and selling for less than mine when the builder made them.
Why? Because they were resold during the peak of the bubble, so somehow Zillow thinks they are worth more than mine which has never been resold.
Zillow is junk.
Posted by: blogger | November 02, 2007 at 12:22 PM
I think zillow is a great tool. I have worked with it many times and would recommend it. I would always double check the subject property against comparable properties, the computer sometimes misses very crucial things when it comes to determining the exact true current market value. But still one of the best tools online.
Posted by: Gresham Real Estate | December 24, 2007 at 01:25 PM
zillow is great. Something has gotta break down the realtor market. 6% give me a break, for what?
Posted by: Zillow lover | May 22, 2008 at 06:39 AM
Zillow doesn't take into account a few things that can change value of a home by as much as 100k.
The do not take into account ranch square foot pricing compared to 2 story square foot pricing. In Colorado ranches are appraised at a higher square footage than 2 stories.
Zillow also does not take into account basements. Basements are huge on how much a home is appraised for. Full basements are more than 1/2 or no basements. Full walkout basements are appraised at the highest value per square foot.
Zillow does not take into consideration home backing to open space either.
Zillow is worthless. If you really want to know the value of a home get an appraisal done. It is worth the money.
Posted by: colorado | June 07, 2008 at 09:13 PM
It's pretty funny to see those of you commenters that are bashing Zillow, saying it's worthless. It's exceedingly obvious that either (a) Zillow is hurting your bottom line, or (b) the world is black and white in your eyes (in other words, if something's not perfect, it's useless).
Zillow is just one more tool to use in your real estate endeavors. No, it's not the be-all, end-all tool, but it surely has its uses. You'd have to be a fool to think it's going to nail every price on every house, but it's pretty dang close in my neck of the woods. Anyone that dismisses it out of hand is scared or stupid.
Posted by: Greg | July 23, 2009 at 07:53 AM
My personal experience is zillow zestimate is way off. I live in suburbs of Denver where I sold one single family house and bought a town home. The zestimate is totally off and does not reflect the market realities but unfortunately gives poor impression to the seller.
Posted by: M. Che | December 16, 2009 at 08:08 AM
I'm and IT admin, not a realtor, and I can tell you that the Zillow estimates are way off in my area (north florida).
What Zillow doesn't take into consideration are the two homes that were repo/short sale homes were in need of serious repairs (A/C units out, carpets ruined, appliances broken, dead grass and bushes, etc).
The best bet is to use Zillow to get a ball park figure then pay for a professional assesment (independent of a realtor). That way, you know what you're working with.
Posted by: Kurt Jerdon | December 29, 2009 at 04:37 PM
"Worthless", period!
I don't care where you own (i.e., where you hope to sell) or where you plan to buy, the property values reflected on Zillow.com are consistently and dramatically inaccurate.
Depending on the specific region of the country or neighborhood, they are typically 15-20% higher than true market value, and in some cases, they are as much as 50% WRONG!
Basically, the property value reflected on Zillow is generally in-line with the over-valued property tax assessments from your local tax assessor. So, if you're a seller, just use your tax assessment values and subtract 20%, and list the property at that value.
Posted by: G. Stewart | March 24, 2010 at 07:23 PM
Zillow shows my condo as having a fireplace and it doesn't. I tried to correct it but they never changed it. Also, my unit has an open view of the ocean and only 100 ft. from the beach and none of that is figured into their zestimate. They could do a better job.
Posted by: Annie d. | August 11, 2010 at 06:19 AM
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Posted by: air yeezy | October 31, 2010 at 05:48 PM
Zillow is a machine without vision.
Posted by: Joe | February 05, 2011 at 06:43 AM
The Washington Post's Real Estate area has a Recent Sales database that looks up the canton annal for sales. It's rather absorbing back you can seek by name, artery address, etc.
Posted by: timeshare appraisal | February 24, 2011 at 09:22 AM
These particles of light are the fastest things in the universe, so an optical computer could theoretically process information at speeds that make even a supercomputer look glacial.
Posted by: Hobo Handbags | February 25, 2011 at 06:14 PM
I use Zillow all the time; mainly because I want to know how much the homes of my friends and family members cost :) No site is one hundred percent accurate but I think it gives you a very good ballpark figure of the value of a home and the neighborhood.
Posted by: Home Loan | June 17, 2011 at 09:40 AM