Saturday, January 25, 2020
Accuracy of Zillow and Trulia Estimates
I know that they are not perfect, but how imperfect are they? We are buying a house in Middleton, and it appraised for $469,000. Trulia estimated $614,018 which is clearly too high. Zillow estimated $456,992, a little low. Zillow is estimating $532,890 for our current home; Trulia says $533,832. This is encouraging. We still need to sell this house. Need a mountaintop Shangri-La?
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Like traditional valuation procedure for mortgage purposes, it is largely based upon comparison with nearby "comparable" properties, scaling to account for differences in age, condition, and desirable features. For homes in developments that have many similar homes, it can be really accurate, but for one-off homes it is more likely to be off.
ReplyDeleteOur summer home in a rather exclusive town is currently shown with a wacky "Zestimate" because it falls in the same 5-digit zip-code as a slum-area in the nearest city. What zillow is considering to be "comparable" houses are same-size, twice as old slumlord properties miles away in a different town, rather than the same-size same age-same condition houses down the street in the same actual lakeside neighborhood but across the zip-code (but not political) boundary.
Updating the home's description on Zillow if the description is inaccurate is reported to help make the Zestimate more accurate also.