When they first rolled out the improve-it-yourself feature, it turned out to be no more than an opportunity to list your upgrades – because little or no value was added to your zestimate. I received this by email today:
Hi Jim,
Today Zillow announced enhancements to the Zestimate® home value that allow homeowners to edit their home facts on Zillow and, depending on the new information they provide, potentially see an immediate impact on their Zestimate. For instance, if the square footage of a home is out of date on Zillow, the homeowner can correct this information and see an adjustment in their Zestimate.
Can listing agents use this feature to affect the Zestimate?
We encourage you to work with your seller prior to placing the home on the market to ensure all information on Zillow is accurate. If your seller is concerned about the Zestimate, check the home facts and make updates where needed. We suggest you communicate that the Zestimate is an estimate, not an appraisal.
We continue to iterate on our existing offerings to improve how buyers, sellers and homeowners use the resources available on Zillow. Should you have any questions about the Zestimate, visit www.zillow.com/zestimate.
Sincerely,
Greg Schwartz, Chief Revenue Officer, Zillow Group
I’ll believe it when I see it! In the end, the zestimates will likely be more inaccurate as sellers fluff their values to the moon. But Zillow is learning the ways of the industry, and is now siding with the sellers. Get Good Help!
The highly anticipated, no-reserve auction in Rancho Santa Fe happens later today. It was on the market for $36,500,000 back in 2006 and for sale ever since – the latest list price was $22,500,000 last year.
Perched above the beach at the edge of the tree line, this vacation home allows the dramatic Oregon Coast to take center stage. The design maintains sightlines from the sheltered forest to the open coastline with a minimal structure of glass and steel. Atop the two-story, transparent box, the copper-clad green roof is an elevated slab of native ferns and grasses.
This was the former mayor’s house, sold as a short sale in 2010 for $2,400,000.
It was (re)listed for $12,980,000 three weeks ago, and is now marked pending. It was probably assisted by the two La Jolla oceanfront listings that hit the market this week – both over $20,000,000. Or by Romney living next door? Maybe he picked up another piece!
Mortgage rates had their best day of the month today following Fed Chair Yellen’s testimony before the Senate Banking Committee. That’s part of a 2-day semi-annual update that the Fed gives to congress. In this modern electronic age, it’s a wholly unnecessary relic from a bygone era when everything that every member of the Fed has said on the record wasn’t instantly available on the web. And so it has devolved into a painful display of American bureaucracy where congress-people can vent their frustrations or display their ignorance for a quick sound-byte. All that having been said, markets still treat this as the Fed Chair’s twice-a-year chance to set the record straight in a Q&A format, less constrained by the formalities of official FOMC communications.
This time around, market participants were anxious about the possibility that Yellen would say something to confirm an accelerated rate hike time frame. Last week’s Fed Minutes suggested patience in that regard, but the meeting where those minutes were recorded took place before the most recent jobs report. The risk was that the super strong employment data would somehow accelerate the Fed’s timeline, resulting in a rate hike within the next few meetings. After hearing from Yellen today, trading levels went back to suggesting a September rate hike.
The previous reading of the San Diego Case-Shiller Index was +0.29%, and the latest gave almost all of that back. December’s reading was -0.24%, making it four out of the last five that were in negative territory. But the three-month above shows that the end of 2014 was flatsville.
Bob Shiller should be checking in later with his usual whamsy-pamsy remarks, and Dr. Blitzer continues to be focused on what’s wrong – he has to be a lot of fun at parties:
“The housing recovery is faltering. While prices and sales of existing homes are close to normal, construction and new home sales remain weak. Before the current business cycle, any time housing starts were at their current level of about one million at annual rates, the economy was in a recession” says David M. Blitzer, Managing Director and Chairman of the Index Committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices. “The softness in housing is despite favorable conditions elsewhere in the economy: strong job growth, a declining unemployment rate, continued low interest rates and positive consumer confidence.
In front of a packed house, the San Diego City Council approved a controversial mixed-use project in Carmel Valley after hours of public comments.
The One Paseo Project includes the construction of stores and eateries, the expansion of a movie theater and the addition of more than 600 family apartments and a parking structure in Carmel Valley.
The San Diego Planning Commission approved the proposal for the $750 million, 1.4 million square-foot, mixed-use village slated for the corner of Del Mar Heights Road and El Camino Real. The panel agreed to the plan on the condition that developer Kilroy Realty agreed to make 11 changes to the master plan.
On Monday night, the San Diego City Council approved the plan 7-2, though they did say Kilroy must add 60 affordable housing units and a sychronized traffic system. Council President Sherri Lightner and Council President Pro Tem Marti Emerald were the dissenting votes.
Hundreds showed up Monday to hear the debate at council chambers — so many that Golden Hall had to be used as an overflow area. About 600 people signed up to speak on the issue, many wearing red shirts to show their opposition to One Paseo.
The Carmel Valley Planning Board voted against the current proposal but its members have said they support a smaller version of the plan.
