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Zillow, zillow, zillow uses a algorithim, that is intended to predict near term future value, and is still under development. It uses information from several entities: tax assesed value, closest recent sales, interest rates, consumer habits by market, and current interest rates.
The zestimator is only accurate in areas with very high turnover rates. The value range it gives is usually very accurate in markets it has been accumulating information in for a prolonged time but, make the range wide enough and it is hard to be wrong.
Some of the biggest problems with the zestimator's algorithim is: that it doesnt distinguish between quality of construction between neighborhoods, tax assesments percentage of actually property value differs a great deal depending on area, and interest rates affect on property prices is not immediate.
Zillow is probably the most misleading thing on the internet.
Zillow is not inside any home and has no idea of condition and does not factor in better or worse locations. The comps it uses are rarely comparable properties.
Zillow's accuracy depends on a number of variables, on what state you're in and what information is available publicly in that state, and on the honesty of those homeowners who bother to update the Zillow information.
I wouldn't go by Zillow, in other words. I've found them wrong more often than right, in our area.
Location: central, between Pepe's Tacos and Roberto's
2,086 posts, read 6,833,171 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ibginnie
Zillow doesn't cover my area. I can't find anything on there for my town at all.
Or my sister's house in NJ
Or the house I sold in VA
Or my gf's house in VA
Or the house we looked at last month in NC
Or my cousin's house in MD
Or my ex's house in WV
Or my other gf's house in PA
I'll add... that both Zillow and Reality Trac are the clumsiest sites on the internet. Both employ slow page loading maps. Links take forever to load and there are frequent errors. Realtor.com has been 100x's more reliable for updated listings. I've also used google.base.housing with great success for listing search Google Search
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