I am very fond of Zillow (www.zillow.com), a site that provides value estimates for houses around the country. It combines real estate voyeurism with lots of data and satellite maps, so I spend way more time on it than I should.
Beyond the fact that Zillow is fun, it is honest. It presents information on how accurate its estimates of home values are in a very user-friendly manner. First, it gives market statistics on accuracy at http://www.zillow.com/howto/DataCoverageZestimateAccuracy.htm. Two stats are key here--the median error Zillow makes when it estimates value, and the share of value estimates that are within 10 percent of ultimate sales price.
Second, it gives an range of estimates values for any particular house. While I have not been able to find exactly how Zillow comes up with this range, my reading between the lines suggests that it is the Zillow estimate of value plus or minus one standard deviation. What this means is there is about a two-thirds chance that a house will actually sell within the range of values reported on Zillow (if anyone has the scoop on this, please let me know).
I am reasonably sure one thing is true--more generic houses get more accurate values from Zillow than ideosyncratic houses. Have fun, and let me know what you think about how well Zillow values your house.
No comments:
Post a Comment