They don’t have a direct feed from our MLS, but they give themselves the highest 4-star rating for San Diego?
Median error = half the San Diego zestimates are wrong by more than 6.2%
Zillow, the leading real estate information and home-related marketplace, today launches an update to the Zestimate® algorithm, improving accuracy across the country. Today’s update will improve the national median error rate from 8 percent to 6 percenti.
Additionally, the update, which rolls out over the next 24 hours, improves accuracy in 96 of the 100 largest counties in the U.S.
Zillow publishes Zestimates on more than 100 million homes across the country based on 7.5 million statistical and machine learning models that examine hundreds of data points on each individual home.
In particular, the change includes a model specifically built to value new construction. It will also allow Zillow to process more home value data faster.
“Homes are a big investment, so if you own one, you’re probably wondering what it’s worth. That’s why we created the Zestimate – to freely give consumers as much information as possible about the housing market and homes, so that they can make smart decisions when buying or selling,” said Stan Humphries, Zillow Group chief analytics officer and creator of the Zestimate. “Since we launched the Zestimate 10 years ago, we have been continually working on making it even better. With the additional statistical models and computing power behind today’s update, we are able to provide consumers even better information about millions of homes, equipping them to make informed decisions when talking with a real estate profession about buying or selling.”
To calculate the Zestimate, Zillow uses data from county and tax assessor records, and direct feeds from hundreds of multiple listing services and brokerages. Additionally, Zillow users have updated home facts on more than 50 million homes, enhancing Zillow’s living database of U.S. homes and adding data unavailable anywhere else.
While Zestimates are a great starting point for determining the value of a home, ultimately a home is worth what someone will pay for it. Zillow encourages home buyers and sellers to work with an experienced local real estate professional to determine and fine tune a home’s best price.
i Half of all Zestimates are within 6 percent of the selling price, and half are off by more than 6 percent.
I gave up on Zillow for this area. They can’t even keep up with documented sales prices. I watch homes around me sell and zillow price even goes down…wtf? And major upgrades are ignored.I notice nearby home sellers and their agents do not even allow zillow to show their homes are for sale….too low. I use Homes.com and eapprasial.com for real values.
Thanks Tom.
Let’s ignore their mumbo-jumbo about median error. I’ll say that half of their zestimates are within 6.2%, and the rest are all over the map – including error rates of 25% and higher.
When selling previous home, I emailed Zillow stating zestimate was hurting offers. The answer I got was: 1 star as to how accurate. I received seven offers (some real low balls) but the offer I accepted was just 1.8% less than list.
UPDATE to Jim: New neighbors told me she was about to see previous home but thought the other two bedrooms were too smal1. I’m ecstatic she and her husband bought next door–as the reason I sold was because of too much drama w/ a next-door neighbor–who just put his home on the market two weeks ago!
Move 990 steps into new sub, and I have the best next-door neighbors ever! We’ve become friends and I’m bringing over homemade choco chippers this morning to them…
It is a scam on so many levels.
Zillow begs for “owner” input. They slam trend rates up/down out of proportion to most recent sale no matter the comparable value. I know all the Z mistakes but I am in no way going to mention them so they can learn from mistakes for free.
Best to get good local expertise. Like Jim.
I think Zillow’s priced our house up & down & then up & down again by 25-40% over the last year. Curiously, it doesn’t show these fluctuations in it estimate history. I deleted all house specific info. from Zillow’s description without affecting the estimate $1. My guess is, Zillow’s using a “black box” approach no one can question to try to influence sales for its Realtors.
I’ve twice asked Zillow to stop “estimating” our home’s value without sharing its algorithm. But, its liaison’s response is ALWAYS the same – there’s nothing she can do and she’ll pass the request along.
From a homeowner perspective, Zillow started fast and looked very promising. Since, its principal accomplishments appear to have been to wake up Realtor.com (slow as that’s been). I’ve dropped Zillow to my last stop realty web site.