Brought to you by Scott P. Rogers, Funkhouser Real Estate Group, 540-578-0102, scott@HarrisonburgHousingToday.com
Brought to you by Scott P. Rogers, Funkhouser Real Estate Group, 540-578-0102, scott@HarrisonburgHousingToday.com
Monday, September 28, 2020
download the infographic above as a PDF
Do homeowners enjoy checking out the Zillow Zestimate for their home?
Yes
Are Zestimates accurate indicators of market value of homes in some real estate markets?
Yes, probably.
Are Zillow Zestimates for properties in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County a good indicator of the price for which a home will sell?
No, not at all.
This used to just be a hunch, but now I can back it up with data.
To answer this question...
- all 1298 residential sales in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County between 7/1/2019 and 6/30/2020 recorded in the HRAR MLS were exported into a data file
- sales without a corresponding Zestimate were excluded, which resulted in 1131 sales being analyzed
- the Zestimate just before each property was listed for sale was compared to the final sales price for each property
As shown above...
- In comparing each sales price to the corresponding Zestimate there was an average difference of 13% or $27,943!
- 59% of homes sold at a higher price than their Zestimate - in fact - for an average of $30,820 more than their Zestimate!
- 41% of homes sold at a lower price than their Zestimate - in fact - for an average of $23,852 less than their Zestimate
So, as a homeowner thinking of selling your home... the Zestimate for your home might happen be accurate - but that would be the exception, not the rule. Only 37% of pre-listing Zestimates were within 5% of the final sales price of the houses.
And as a home buyer thinking of buying a house... you shouldn't necessarily expect to only have to pay the Zestimate for a house, because those values are often too low... and yet you also shouldn't necessarily be willing to pay as much as the Zestimate for a house, because those values are often too high.
In the end, just understand that the Zestimate for your home (in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County) is much more likely to be inaccurate than accurate.
Presumably, you wouldn't want to make a decision about the asking price for your home with a value indicator that is on average 13% different than market value. That is an average of $27,943 -- and most sellers don't want to under-price or over-price their home by that much!
