How accurate is Zillow.com?

[FastCarFan]

I am sure many (most?) of you are familiar with zillow.com, the real estate valuation Website. You can plug in your address & it will provide an estimate of the home's market value. It factors in things like recent sales in the neighborhood, comp sales, current housing market conditions, etc.

My wife & I plan to move in the next 1-2 years. I have checked the "Zillow value" of my home from time to time &, as you can imagine, in recent months it has dropped. That does not surprise me.

However, I am curious how accurate Zillow is. In other words, how close is Zillow's estimated property value compared to the real world?

I am interested to hear others' opinions about Zillow. In particular, has anyone recently sold or bought a home & compared the purchase price to what Zillow said? I am not asking for actual home prices, but was Zillow's value 15% high, 10% low, right on, etc.?

Thanks. I am interested to hear your thoughts.

[Noah930]

Your home is only worth what someone's willing to pay for it. Regardless of what zillow or the other two or three valuation websites guessimate.

I'd be interested to see what factors zillow uses in its valuation calculations. I'm sure local comps, sq ft, # of BR/BA, etc. But there are a million little things that count in the real world, but you just can't valuate very easily without walking into a property and taking a look around (across the street from a noisy school, curb appeal, interior layout, upgrades, local traffic noise, etc.).

I'm noticing that at least here in LA, peoples' asking prices and transaction prices (excepting some sort of forclosure type property) seem to be significantly higher (10-20%) than what zillow estimates.

[the]

sometimes it is dead on, sometimes it is way, way off.

[Dueller]

It seems to be low by 20-25% in my area. This is based on sale of my other home and purchase of my new home in July 08. I just went back and looked again and they do not have updated prices for my existingh home. Seem to be using tax assessed values in a lot of cases which based on our system is lower than actual values.

[jyl]

I think Zillow is decent on trends but not on absolute levels.

[Rick V]

I just went in and plugged my house into it. It was way off. They missed 800sqft. missed my tax value by $58,000, missed the build date by 7 years. I would say it is way off. JMO.

[Tishabet]

Originally Posted by jyl

I think Zillow is decent on trends but not on absolute levels.

+1

Remember, it's essentially a computer program using an algorithm to try to determine value... you and I know that in the real world there are a lot of factors that impact price which the Zillow engine could not possibly know about or factor into the estimate.

In my town there are some nice sections and some really, really bad sections, and they are quite close to each other. Zillow can't adequately account for the fact that the best comps for a given property aren't necessarily those closest as the crow flies; for example, the ritziest section of town is separated from a bad section by the Merrimack River... the closest comp according to Zillow might be 500 yards away, but anyone who knows the area could tell you that the property values on each side of the river differ by orders of magnitude. Same goes for railroad tracks, major roads, a prison, etc.

[stomachmonkey]

It's as accurate as it is inaccurate.

Kinda like CarFax.

[JavaBrewer]

For my area in SoCal it's pretty accurate as neighborhoods are pretty consistent and thus comps play a large role. I am on work travel in TX and don't see how it would work as neighborhoods (that I have seen) are very diverse. A $1.4M house next door to a $700K home and across the street from 4 homes all in the $150K range. All are ~ the same sq/ft.

[stomachmonkey]

Originally Posted by dmoolenaar

For my area in SoCal it's pretty accurate as neighborhoods are pretty consistent and thus comps play a large role. I am on work travel in TX and don't see how it would work as neighborhoods (that I have seen) are very diverse. A $1.4M house next door to a $700K home and across the street from 4 homes all in the $150K range. All are ~ the same sq/ft.

Where in TX are you and for how long?

Part of the weirdness with seemingly similar houses with varied pricing has to do with a few things.

Property size, master plan with amenities, builder and the upgrades in the house it self, stuff like that.

You could spend $500K for a 4500 sq ft on a 1/2 acre in a master plan or $500K for a 4500 sq ftr on a couple of acres outside a master plan.

A Huntington home is going to fetch more than a David Weekly home even if they are only a block apart.

[JavaBrewer]

I am in San Antonio for another hour...online at the airport right now.

I'm not saying anything negative, or at least that was not my intent, just a bit unusual to see such a range in home prices on the same street. We get that in SoCal for ocean view vs. non homes but here the land & views are the same. I saw some incredible looking homes and I really like the stone usage on the exteriors.

And I thought San Diego was the Mexican food capital...guess I was wrong

[stomachmonkey]

Originally Posted by dmoolenaar

I am in San Antonio for another hour...online at the airport right now.

I'm not saying anything negative, or at least that was not my intent, just a bit unusual to see such a range in home prices on the same street. We get that in SoCal for ocean view vs. non homes but here the land & views are the same. I saw some incredible looking homes and I really like the stone usage on the exteriors.

And I thought San Diego was the Mexican food capital...guess I was wrong

Nothing negative perceived.

I had the same feeling when I moved down here from NY.

It made house hunting kind of weird.

And yeah, they love their TexMex around here, one place we frequent has spicy Margarita Salt.

And Breakfast Burritos? Really? I miss me my East coast bacon/egg/cheese on a roll. MMMMM.

Have a good flight.

[porsche4life]

It doesnt even find my place. It pulls up a place about 5 miles away that is smaller and about half of the 2000 appraisal price.

[fintstone]

If you ensure the information about your house is accurate...it is usally pretty darned close. I have 5 houses now...and it is pretty darned on-the money for all or them.