Discuss Detroit » Archives - July 2007 » Www.zillow.com « Previous Next »
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Akoper
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Username: Akoper

Post Number: 15
Registered: 01-2006
Posted on Thursday, October 25, 2007 - 9:36 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

This real estate Web site/company is making waves. You put in an address, and it creates a custom map for that house and area with the assessed housing prices laid over top. It also lists houses for sale and the prices of houses that recently sold. Pretty cool, fun to mess around with, and has some of the kinds of information apparently only real estate professionals used to have access to. www.zillow.com

- Andrew
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Dan
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Username: Dan

Post Number: 1453
Registered: 10-2003
Posted on Thursday, October 25, 2007 - 9:49 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Cool tool, I think it fits in with many of the discussions on here, so I think its ok.
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Urbanoutdoors
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Username: Urbanoutdoors

Post Number: 608
Registered: 11-2005
Posted on Thursday, October 25, 2007 - 9:59 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Has the accuracy improved? When i tried it a year or two ago it had all the houses in corktown valued at 55,000 and under.
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Dougw
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Username: Dougw

Post Number: 1963
Registered: 11-2003
Posted on Thursday, October 25, 2007 - 10:02 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

The estimates on zillow have gone completely haywire for metro Detroit for the last 18 months or so... (yes, even more haywire than the actual prices). For some real hilarity, take a look at the 5-year "Market Value Change" graph for Wayne County or any zip code or city within.
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Urbanoutdoors
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Username: Urbanoutdoors

Post Number: 609
Registered: 11-2005
Posted on Thursday, October 25, 2007 - 10:07 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

yeah I just checked most of the houses on leverette are listed in the 30,000 range instead of the 150,000 plus for the area. interesting site but very inaccurate if it wasn't sold in the past few years
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Kid_dynamite
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Username: Kid_dynamite

Post Number: 348
Registered: 06-2007
Posted on Thursday, October 25, 2007 - 10:08 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Urban..the site is not very reliable. I am a mortgage banker, and I almost always compare zillow values against the actual appraisals I order. If I had to guess, I would say that it submits values within 10% of the actual appraised value maybe 30-40% of the time. If the address you enter exists in a neighborhood with a lot of comparable sales close by it, it sometimes can give you a good ballpark range of what the value of your home is.
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Yaktown
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Username: Yaktown

Post Number: 247
Registered: 02-2006
Posted on Thursday, October 25, 2007 - 10:32 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I just used both zillow and cyberhomes.com to do a home value. Zillow has my home at $58,460 and cyberhomes has it at $96,624. Why the big spread?! I know the housing market is crap right now but $58K?!
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Mbr
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Username: Mbr

Post Number: 250
Registered: 03-2005
Posted on Thursday, October 25, 2007 - 10:40 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

It's probably very unreliable in the city, if that's where you live. Given that areas change so abruptly from block to block the program doesn't know that one sale two blocks over could be in a terrible area while you live in a nice area.
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Detroithabitater
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Username: Detroithabitater

Post Number: 55
Registered: 10-2006
Posted on Friday, October 26, 2007 - 9:57 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

My house

Zillow = $25,200
Cyberhomes = $139,380
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Charlottepaul
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Username: Charlottepaul

Post Number: 1868
Registered: 10-2006
Posted on Friday, October 26, 2007 - 10:05 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Yeah, pretty sure that my parents in Livonia would not be happy if I told them about that web site. Their home is for sale, but at a much higher price than $107,000. Also, they bought it for about $170,000 ten years ago...
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Charlottepaul
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Username: Charlottepaul

Post Number: 1869
Registered: 10-2006
Posted on Friday, October 26, 2007 - 10:08 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Cyber homes is better at $201,000...
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Kid_dynamite
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Username: Kid_dynamite

Post Number: 352
Registered: 06-2007
Posted on Friday, October 26, 2007 - 10:29 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I am not sure about this, but I heard that zillow will commonly post values that are what the county's tax assessed values are. I'm sure you know that tax assessment values are generally much lower that actual appraised values.
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Publicmsu
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Username: Publicmsu

Post Number: 705
Registered: 11-2003
Posted on Friday, October 26, 2007 - 10:31 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Zillow is a joke. It has my neighbor's home listed as 136k and it sold last summer for 270k. Zillow is a waste of time and space. Any monkey can put up a random number generator for home prices!
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Miss_cleo
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Username: Miss_cleo

Post Number: 930
Registered: 05-2005
Posted on Friday, October 26, 2007 - 11:05 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Whats the deal with those sites? My house has been here 7 years and neither of those sites can find it, no info.
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Dougw
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Username: Dougw

Post Number: 1964
Registered: 11-2003
Posted on Friday, October 26, 2007 - 12:28 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

quote:

It's probably very unreliable in the city, if that's where you live.


The estimates haven't just gone crazy in the city, but in most suburbs as well. Actually, I can understand that Zillow isn't going to be able to accurately account for things like condition of the home, that's to be expected. What's remarkable is how much their overall estimates for entire cities and counties in southeast Michigan have rocketed up and down in the last couple years, see this chart as an example:





I picked Dearborn as a reasonably stable suburb. According to this chart, the average Dearborn home value in June 2007 was about $15,000. And the average Wayne County home was worth $9000! (see the $9k low point on the graph) But a few months prior it was more like $80K for Wayne County, and now it's climbed back up to $40K.

My guess is that Zillow's estimating algorithm is having trouble making sense of the bursting housing bubble. Maybe as home sales evaporated for a while this summer, it assumed the worst, that the houses were worthless, who knows. But now perhaps sales are picking up a teeny bit.

(To see the above chart for Dearborn or any other city, enter "Dearborn, MI" in the Find Homes box, click on one of the red flags (homes for sale), such as 5019 Williamson St. Scroll down and click on the Zestimate chart, then on that page turn on the zip code, city and county checkboxes and switch to the 5-year view. Note that some cities do not have Zestimates, such as the Grosse Pointes. Maybe some of these cities asked Zillow to refrain from estimating, to avoid a panic.)
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Yaktown
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Username: Yaktown

Post Number: 248
Registered: 02-2006
Posted on Friday, October 26, 2007 - 9:13 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Cleo, both zillow and cyberhomes do not cover 100% of the country. I know for a fact that Taylor isn't included on their sites and it's a pretty sizeable inner-ring suburb. I know you live in the north country somewhere so I'm not surprised they have no coverage up there yet. Just for fun, I checked out my old home in Dearborn Heights then tried to look up my uncle & aunts house in Taylor. As Dougw noted, perhaps some cities didn't want the estimates published.
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Soomka1
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Username: Soomka1

Post Number: 59
Registered: 02-2007
Posted on Saturday, October 27, 2007 - 3:39 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Those web sites are about as accurate as the sites that translate text from one language to another. If you want to play around with it, go ahead but don't give them an e-mail address, or you will get a lifetime's worth of spam from lenders.
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220hendrie1910
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Username: 220hendrie1910

Post Number: 77
Registered: 02-2006
Posted on Tuesday, October 30, 2007 - 8:42 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

For a bit of fun, use Zillow or Cyberhomes to size up the houses on Roby St. Now, if we could just get the street cleared of junk...
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Dhugger
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Username: Dhugger

Post Number: 224
Registered: 03-2005
Posted on Tuesday, October 30, 2007 - 11:35 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I don't think Zillow is all that accurate. I have watched my property on this site over the past 2 years.

1. > It listed my home as having only 1 bathroom when it has 2.
2. > My home value has changed as much as $10,000 in a 24 hour time span????
3. My neighbors just double the size of their home and it did not calculate the improved value for over a year and a half.

I think this site will do a great disservice for home sales in Southeastern Michigan. As if we are not under attack already.
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Andylinn
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Username: Andylinn

Post Number: 618
Registered: 04-2006
Posted on Tuesday, October 30, 2007 - 12:48 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

LOL, 100 year old WATERFRONT homes next to the mayors house in historic berry subdivision are worth between $60k and $100k according to zillow... that's hilarious. oh, and my apartment "costs" $21k... but i pay about 500 a month... hmmm...
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Rhymeswithrawk
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Username: Rhymeswithrawk

Post Number: 987
Registered: 11-2005
Posted on Tuesday, October 30, 2007 - 7:29 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Uh, why the heck does the Zestimate or whatever the hell it calls it value my home at $400,000 more than I bought it for?
Also, the square footage is wrong.
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Renfirst
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Username: Renfirst

Post Number: 82
Registered: 12-2006
Posted on Tuesday, October 30, 2007 - 8:51 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Zillow is 55% accurate in the midwest... they seem to be better on the West Coast and Florida...

I think it has something to do with the public records...

Check out http://www.realestateabc.com ... they're calculator is much better.

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