Rocklin Real Estate: Just How Accurate Is Zillow?
For Rocklin Real Estate, Not Very
I’ve heard from home sellers for years about Zillow’s opinion of what their home was worth. I’ve never given Zillow much credibility with regard to home values. When you’re not working in the marketplace you just can’t compete with those who are.
Additionally, Zillow used to be wildly inaccurate in their estimate of home values in any given area. I had heard that they were better than they used to be so I thought I’d take a look.
My initial thought was to run a random address and see what they said vs. what I could find through Metrolist Inc., where 98% of all homes are sold in our region.
After looking at just their median numbers for Rocklin, I came to the immediate conclusion that using this information would suffice as it was significantly different from what I found locally.
I’ll break this down for easy digestion :-).
Median Home Price In The Rocklin Real Estate Market As Of March 31st
The median home price is a relatively easy number to obtain and the only number could easily locate on Zillow so I thought I’d start with that. Zillow says for a single family home in the 95765 zip code that the median sales price is $411,000. Click here for the link directly to the page where this is displayed.
When looking at the MLS through Metrolist Inc., the median home price for March under the same criteria is $450,000. In this example, Zillow is $39,000 lower than the actual median
home value in Rocklin real estate sales, 95765 for March, 2014.
Taking into account that a Realtors opinion can be called into question with regard to a given home value, if I were really interested in “padding my own nest”, so to speak, it would be that the Zillow estimate is too high and thus advise a lower initial listing price.
But this is not the case.
Saying they are too low means that if I were to put your home on the market today, I would suggest a listing price HIGHER than what Zillow would estimate your home to be worth for the location, amenities and condition of your home.
Median Home Price Vs. Average Sold Price
The numbers I could find on Zillow are based on the median sales price of homes in Rocklin real estate. For the purposes of knowing what your home would be worth in any given market, the average sales price is a more appropriate number to know and usually, if not always, higher than the median.
In this example, the average sales price for March 2014 was $469,000 for a home that was 4 bedrooms, 3.12 baths and just over 2600 square feet.
That makes Zillow’s functional estimate of value on the average home sold in Rocklin real estate in March 2014 inaccurate by $58,000.
My purpose here is not to say that Zillow is worthless or that you shouldn’t go there to check into your home value but only to say that if you do, understand that, in all likelihood, the estimate you get will most likely be inaccurate and, as in this example, too low.
I don’t know about you but when wanting to know what my home is worth, I’d like the more accurate information possible but that’s me. If you’d like a true representation of what your home is worth in today’s market, please contact me as I’m happy to help.
If you have any questions about the data please let me know and I’ll send you a full report at your request.
Thanks for visiting!
Buying or selling a home in Rocklin? If so, I’d like to help you. Please call or text me directly at 916-532-7653 or click here, for my contact page.
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