Zillow is total BS when it comes to property values, right?

[loves2read]

in some states where real estate sales are public record and Zillow can access those records then the home info might be fairly accurate
but in TX where RE sales are private info and NOT automatically forwarded to the county appraisal office then Zillow is hype

[synchronicity]

Originally Posted by MckinneyOwnr

Yes, we all know appraisers would NEVER inflate values of a home beyond what a reasonable market value should be. Have you forgotten the 2007-2008 housing crash already???

Er, Zillow works the same way as appraisers do (find "comparable" houses, get recent sale/listing/whatever price data, apply an algorithm to calculate a price). I can attest that in 2007-2008 on my old home, zillow's zestimates were also "inflated".

The difference is that appraisers can generally get more info on the specifics of "comparable" homes, while zillow is limited to certain publicly available data.

Zillow regularly adjusts their algorithms based on reviews of historical data (the zestimate for my old palce dropped something like 45K in 2011 with one such iteration). Yes, I've dealt with some idiot appraisers (one actually missed a bedroom when appraising my old house, and sadly it was not that large so as to make such an error excusable), but zestimates are pretty much wild-&ss guesses that occasionally are accurate.

[MckinneyOwnr]

Originally Posted by synchronicity

Er, Zillow works the same way as appraisers do (find "comparable" houses, get recent sale/listing/whatever price data, apply an algorithm to calculate a price). I can attest that in 2007-2008 on my old home, zillow's zestimates were also "inflated".

That's part of my point... "If Zillow figures were accurate, then appraisers would be out of a job." They can come up with the same values using the same methods, the difference to me is that Zillow wasn't in bed with banks and mortgage companies like the appraisers were, artificially inflating prices.

Originally Posted by synchronicity

Zillow regularly adjusts their algorithms based on reviews of historical data (the zestimate for my old palce dropped something like 45K in 2011 with one such iteration). Yes, I've dealt with some idiot appraisers (one actually missed a bedroom when appraising my old house, and sadly it was not that large so as to make such an error excusable), but zestimates are pretty much wild-&ss guesses that occasionally are accurate.

Agree to disagree. I've seen firsthand that Zillow estimates in Plano, Allen, Frisco, and McKinney were all VERY accurate during my home search, with a price range of $250-300k. I saw it again 2 years later when my parents were looking to move, and searched those same areas, but this time with a range of $400k to 500k.

It seems to me that most people who have used Zillow during a home buying search feel it's pretty accurate most of the time. The people who disagree seem to be mainly realtors.

[hal2814]

Originally Posted by TheOverdog

Zillow doesn't actually 'appraise' the prices of houses though, and they admit as much on their website. They simply take the last listed price and then compare sales in the area to determine an overall up or down multiplier for the neighborhood or area, and then apply the multiplier to the area based on price per sq ft.

If your prices are that far off, I'd say its because your neighbor's house was something like a recent foreclosure or short sale, so it had a much different starting price.

My neighborhood was recently pushed way up because our neighbor's house was sold as foreclosure listed at $130k and now they are listing it at $184k. That listing price pushed our zestimate up by a similar percent gain, to roughly maintain the same price differential per sq ft.

No foreclosures. I bought my house 3 years ago. My neighbor bought theirs around 1990. Near as I can tell, Zillow is pulling a raw tax estimate on theirs and basing mine using some other method.

[MckinneyOwnr]

Originally Posted by hal2814

No foreclosures. I bought my house 3 years ago. My neighbor bought theirs around 1990. Near as I can tell, Zillow is pulling a raw tax estimate on theirs and basing mine using some other method.

Yes, that's probably right. My parents house was way off before they listed their home for sale, and there weren't any sales in the surrounding area for comps, so the zestimate was a bit above the taxable value. As soon as they listed it though, it started going up, and as more homes on the block started to move, it stabilized at a price very close to market value.

[robmab]

I just looked at our house on Zillow and their "Zestimate" has gone up over $80k in the past 30 days. I think they must be doing some updating to their $/sf in certain areas because they're getting a lot closer to the value that the house appraised for when we bought it last year. It's still quite a bit off, though.

[ritholtz]

They bumped up prices for all homes on our street. Mine is increased by 60k from our purchase price in 3 months. I think, it is BS. It will take 4-5 years to see that much appreciation without any setbacks.

[Ralyks]

I hope not. My Zillow estimate shows the house has dropped $4,000 in value since we bought it....and we've put in $15,000 of repairs!

[aggieplaya]

NEVER trust Zillow in Texas - it is THAT simple. It may be right in some cases, but will be wrong in most. Just go to a realtor to get the most accurate, don't even waste time on Zillow.