Zillow home values accurate? (real estate, mortgage, home equity loan)

[chrisgsxt19]

I've been a "watcher" of the housing market since 2008 when my husband and I became first time homeowners in NOVA and I must say Zillow was pretty accurate for our house there. Since moving here into our current home(2011) at first it seemed accurate but now it has our value pretty high, which I don't trust. We want to take out a home equity loan but want to make sure the value is there and not throw away $$ on an appraisal. Any opinions on the site? Has anyone else seen a big increase in their values? I'm in Kearneysville but Berkeley Co.

[BMalo]

Not in WV but when I had my house appraise in January it was appraised at 175k, bought it for 170k and on Zillow it was estimated at 145k. It has since gone up to a Zillow estimate of 175k so not sure if its catching up to the actual value or if the home value has gone up. I prefer to believe the latter but home values in AZ have gone up a bit since the end of last year.

[bballjunkie]

Originally Posted by chrisgsxt19

We want to take out a home equity loan but want to make sure the value is there and not throw away $$ on an appraisal. .

I think most financial institutions will require an appraisal by a certified appraiser. They use that information along with your mortgage balance to determine approval of the loan and sometimes the interest rate.

Good luck on getting a loan without an appraisal.

[snorpus]

Originally Posted by bballjunkie

I think most financial institutions will require an appraisal by a certified appraiser. They use that information along with your mortgage balance to determine approval of the loan and sometimes the interest rate.

Good luck on getting a loan without an appraisal.

I think the OP meant they want to be (reasonably) sure the current value is high enough that there will be enough equity to justify a home equity loan, not that they'll be able to get the loan w/o an appraisal.

I'd say that long term, Zillow is within 10-20% of the true value. They seem to catch trends pretty well, but I wouldn't put much stock in month-to-month variations. And I think appraised values tend to be a bit lower than actually selling prices, which is what Zillow tracks.

[chrisgsxt19]

I am quite aware I can not obtain a loan without an appraisal, like stated before I don't want to spend $400-500 to find out I have no equity or not enough to justify the cost. If zillow is accurate I would have almost 60k with an 80/20 ratio.

[pknopp]

Just for the heck of it I've looked up my house. It lists the wrong house with all wrong info for our address.

[Margery]

Ask a local real estate agent (they will know your market better than Zillow) for an estimate. Be truthful about why you need it and ask them to do it as a favor. I do this from time to time and have gotten referrals from people who are grateful that I helped them.

[MountieDukes]

I would say generally speaking zillow is within 5-10% or so, but that could be the difference depending on what market you are looking at.

To add to Margery's advice, I would use Zillow by filtering out only those that have been recently sold and see what some actual comparables have sold for over the past year.