From The Seattle Times Nov 4th issue by Kenneth R. Harney- Zillow, a website that offers the consumer free instant valuations and data of 67 million-plus homes. Being that wide spread maybe contributing to the inaccuracies from 11% to 50%. Now under harsh scrutiny, a formal complaint was filed with the Federal Trade Commission and the National Community Reinvestment Coalition who charged that "Zillow knowingly deceives the public by presenting its property estimates as accurate even through they are frequently far off the mark".
The coalition's audit of Zillow's accuracy documented their valuations are within 10% of actual market value less than 1/3 of the time. In this audit, two other studies were also cited that did similar audits on Zillow. MSN Money and another by R. James Girardot, president of an appraisal firm in Washington State. MSN studied the metropolitian areas of Seattle, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Scottsdale-AZ, Cincinnati and Portland-OR and found them within 10% accurancy only 29% of the time.
The other study by Girardot, covered 200 houses on Zillow with their actual closed selling prices to date. In one case for example, Zillow estimated a property value at $246,865...but the house sold for $489,950 last July. Overall Girardot found that inaccurancies ran 11%-50%.
Thus, in response to anyone who hasen't seen/heard of this site or might be thinking about referring to this site; Zillow should only be viewed as a starting point to researching the market area around you. I think it's fun to look in different neighborhoods and try to predict what your home might be worth. But as a general guide, it's always best to do your own calculations based upon original sales price, years owned/appreciation, Assessed tax value and current market conditions. If Zillow can't even offer up-to-date information of homes that have already sold, then what is the point of using their site and getting mislead? I would love to hear other's experiences with Zillow...good or bad.
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