http://tinyurl.com/pcp6v

http://www.oregonlive.com/business/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/business/1155696905214750.xml&coll=7

So my question (which no one is answered) is if Zillow’s RE prices are also influenced by Re-Fi’s in addition to home sales, than wouldn’t it also be true that since Re-fi’s are more common than a home-sales they would have more influence over the database than anything?

Yep, straight shooters I’m sure…

Yup, it’s fundamentals.

We’re now T minus 6 months and counting for bubble hell to take Seattle by storm and teach a new generation of borrowers a hard lesson in fiscal responsibility, and expose just how many investors and flippers really buy here.

Not all analyses: http://www.scotsmanguide.com/default.asp?ID=1455.

Yeah Meshugy, that’s like saying all jelly beans are black. Paleez.I’m sure you had a wonderful appraiser, but that’s not the whole pie.

Appraisal’s are as much a part of the no-doc/neg-am racket as anything.

Its all connected, everyone’s in on the bubble game right down the chain… and don’t think this is a good thing , especially if you’re using Zillow numbers to decide on a refi…

everybody wins except for those who buy at the top, its always the case…

MLS# 26125043 Listed at $475K. purchased for $462 on 12/23/2005. It’s trustee sale, as the previous owner stopped paying his mortgage in February, and is $25K behind in payments.

http://www.zillow.com/HomeDetails.htm?city=SEATTLE%20&state=WA&zprop=49090151

I’m hoping that was said with sarcasm. If not, I find it funny for multiple reasons:

Most of Greenwood doesn’t even have sidewalks. It’s like unincorporated King County, but with more blight and crime.

“The new Ballard” – now THAT is amusing. I was in Ballard for the Seafood Festival recently. To be honest, I sure didn’t see much that convinced me that Ballard was now “hip”, or worth the current prices.

Of course, if you mean that Greenwood is like Ballard in that people are moving there because it’s cheaper than other areas, I would certainly agree. But just because prices are going up, it doesn’t mean that the area is a nice place to live.

Appraisals are a pretty good way to judge the vaule….that’s why they use them. The comprehensive appraisal done on my house was very throughly researched. It was very conservative and showed the house below the obvious market value….most appraisals I’ve seen around here have been like that. They tend to lag behind market value.

There you go Meshugy, the HELOC’s are a big part of the Zillow equation and a lot of folks will get appraisals right before they refi for one of these. These ARE NOT listing prices or median sold prices… they are not at the whims of the market.

Interesting to hear your observations…they are dealing with a huge amount of unconfirmed data, so there are bound to be houses that fall through the cracks. Zillow actually has my neighbors house listed more then mine (same model, same year, but not as nice.) They cull most of their data from the county records…if you compare the records you’ll often find why a house got listed for more/less then another. In my case, there’s a 3/4 bath and a bedroom not accounted for on the county records. If zillow had that info, my house would zestimated even higher.

Greenwood is the new Ballard. Now that Ballard has joined the mile high price club of other N.Seattle hoods, there’s nowhere else to go. Greenwood is the last frontier of N.Seattle. Next stop, Montlake Terrace!

Zillow has my home sold in June 05…actually, that is when we took a HELOC..we purchased in 03. The sales price in June is based on the sales price we paid in 03 + the 100k HELOC (even though we only wanted 20k..we only used 20k and pay interest on the 20k so no harm no fowl as I don’t spend every penny available to me). Zillow also shows our home valued at 30k less then the house behind and one over that is the EXACT same model. Our home sits on a pool sized lot. Their home’s backyard is maybe 5 feet deep. Their home sold 9 months ago at 40k LESS than what zillow shows it at today. Their home has gone up in Zillow three weeks in a row while ours is losing value. I saw their home when it was for sale and they do not have nearly the same upgrades as we do. Both homes have tile roofs, but zillow shows that they are comp roofs. I brought these “errors” to zillows attention and they have yet to do anything about it. I think Zillow is the worse thing that happened to the RE market. Too many people are starting to rely on data that has shown (me) to have no reasoning in their “Zestimate”

frickin’ greenwood. no views.

http://johnlscott.com/PropertyDetail.aspx?GroupID=29641359&ListingID=26255617&Sort=0

This is partly true. Zillow can be handy to browse recent sales prices, in a way that the county database is not.

But things break down when:

-Sales are not recent.

-Sales are not actual market transactions (refis, divorce settlements, etc.)

-County details about home (bedrooms, bathrooms, livable interior space, garage, age of improvements) are inaccurate or incomplete.

-There are no easily comparable homes in an area.

I hope the Zestimate on my place is accurate. But I think it’s off by about 25% on the high side, largely because it overvalues price/sqft in my area.

I’d guess that the majority of people reading/hearing this news story actually believe houses went up 40%, and that it’s bound to continue, and there’s no bubble.

The house is 890 square feet.

I thought he paid too much to live so close to Aurora and 85th. (an intersection where there have been shootings in the past)

Only 2 months later, Zillow estimates his house is now worth $70k more. In 2 months!

$575 a square foot?! For what? So you can walk to Jack-in-the-Box?

http://www.zillow.com/HomeDetails.htm?zprop=49057683

They also base it on wild-assed appraisals for people doing the cash-out refi’ madness as well… see my previous post.

They actually do a petty "golly" good job…everyone here keeps saying to ignore the median price reports from the MLS. Instead, they suggest going to the county records to see what houses sold for. That’s exactly what Zillow does…on a massive scale. So they’re doing all the work for you…

I’ve found their zestimates to be very accurate. When I check comps on the county records, the match up very well with what Zillow says my houses is worth. They’re now showing it’s worth $475K, which is about right. Although I’ve seen similar houses go for $500K. But generally, they seem to be right on.

They did go on to play an interview with a realtor who admitted that things have slowed down a bit, and instead of getting 10-12 offers per property, it’s down to a more reasonable 2-3.

Wow. 30% in a quarter. Reminds me of those glorious times back in the care-free late ’90s when Microsoft stock was doubling every 6 months (hmmm, what’s it done in the past 6 months???).

I looked on zillow and literally saw a straight line going from the “typical” appraisal curve to the new psuedo-appraised +100K value, ridiculous…

When everbody’s humping the HELOC housing ATM it artificially inflates on zillow… more of a measure of city indebtedness than an actual measure of housing prices.

There is no indication that the reporter ever asked, “What if your estimates are wrong?” Or, even more pointedly, “Your estimates are based on county records, which everyone knows are painfully inaccurate. Why should we report this as news?”

Zillow is smart. Planting articles like this extends legitimacy to the notion that their algorithm is the baseline for home values.

The press release spells out the data source a bit more honestly.

I’m going to start marketing my MashIndex of home values based on an algorithm of rental price per square foot adjusted by a SeattleOptimist constant, the value of which will be a tightly guarded secret revealed only to venture capital investors.

Is this should be more correct as “The level of stupdidity of these people boggles the mind…”?

We can see herd mentality/lizard-brain phenomenon at full force here.

Sorry sweatheart, if you’re buying at the market peak for something you cleary can’t afford…. you’re already desparate.

We’re now T minus 6 months and counting for bubble hell to take Seattle by storm and teach a new generation of borrowers a hard lesson in fiscal responsibility, and expose just how many investors and flippers really buy here.