Breaking News! Zillow estimates are worthless

[moneymaker]

In the last 2 months according to Zillow my house has lost 20k while my zip and city have only gone down 1k. Evidently Zillow doesn’t know that I recently crawled under my house and replaced some cast iron which actually increased my property value.

[desmond]

If you would have hired somebody to do Zillow would have only decreased the value $10K.

[paramount]

I only wish zillow was not accurate.

Values in Temecula are going down, down, down

Of course this is not the time of the year that those crook tax assessors appraise your house, they wait until house prices are at seasonal high’s. Thanks California Public Employee Unions.

[NotCranky]

That’s hard but very satisfying work knowing that you are good to go for years ahead. (pun not intended but acknowledged).

[carlsbadworker]

Zillow is actually pretty accurate when the market price is moving slowly.

The time when it is fairly inaccurate is when prices are moving very quickly…like year 2008.

[patb]

Zillow is best for trend not absolute value

[HenryPP]

From time to time, I check my home’s value estimate on Trulia and Zillow. Over the last few months, something odd has been going on.

Trulia shows my home’s value increasing relatively steadily. That seems to follow the general area trend.

Zillow shows something COMPLETELY different. It shows a steady rise in the first half of 2013, and then a steady (and rapid) drop since mid-2013.

The rise according to Zillow mirrored the rise according to Trulia. But then there was a complete disconnect in mid-2013.

The strange thing is that the drop, according to Zillow, has been very substantial (over 30% since mid-2013). In fact, it now shows the value as being BELOW the 2011 price bottom. That’s just weird.

None of the other homes in the neighborhood have any similar drop, according to Zillow. In fact, Zillow has them all either holding their value or increasing. So it’s not area-specific. Rather, it seems to be home-specific (and, specifically, my home).

Anyone have any idea what’s going on?

[livinincali]

[quote=HenryPP]Anyone have any idea what’s going on?[/quote]

Zillow doesn’t like you. Or mostly likely their algorithm for estimating home prices just isn’t that good.

[paramount]

[quote=HenryPP]
Anyone have any idea what’s going on?[/quote]

Are the other homes similar in size, etc..?

Housing prices could be cooling based on recent data, particularly pricier properties.

[joec]

I would just look at recent sales in your area and ignore what the Zestimate is…

[HenryPP]

The other homes in the neighborhood are very similar. Same square footage for the houses, with minor variation in land area. All were built at the same time, all look very similar. Basically a neighborhood of cookie-cutter mid-sized family homes.

As for prices cooling, why would only my house be cooling, according to Zillow? Zillow doesn’t have the prices on any of the others dropping. And a 30% drop in a few months is not “cooling” – it’s a crash.

And Trulia shows all the houses, including mine, rising.

Maybe it’s as livinincali says. Maybe Zillow just doesn’t like me. 😀

I’m treating it all as a bit of a joke. Except I have this nagging feeling that someone is manipulating the price for this particular home, and I don’t know why.

[moneymaker]

Any true Californian would sue their ass in court. Only wish I was joking! If I were selling in the near future I would, or get an appraisal done then send them a nasty note.

[LAAFTERHOURS]

Play around with your zillow stats on the home. The price will go up and down based upon what you enter (at least mine did)

[moneymaker]

[quote=LAAFTERHOURS]Play around with your zillow stats on the home. The price will go up and down based upon what you enter (at least mine did)[/quote]
When I get my permitted 26K in solar panels in May I’ll see if Zillow takes any of that into account.

[Jazzman]

This debate about Zillow was going on years back. Trulia not much better in my view. Redfin is better as it allows you to choose the comps. The first two it chooses are often enough to give you an idea. Redfin also guides you through how to do a CMA (comparative market analysis). They also do their own market analysis reviews.

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