UPDATE — Added the 2016 Zillow
Zestimate Accuracy Table in July 2016.
Top 20 search terms with «zestimate» include: «zestimate accurate,» «is zestimate accurate,» and «
zestimate accuracy.»
ADDED: To make this easier for you, I took Zillow's own data and created a Zillow
Zestimate Accuracy Chart which includes the Typical Zillow Error in Dollars for 25 U.S. cities.
Not exact matches
However, Samuelson notes preliminary testing of
Zestimate was conducted in one Canadian market and the
accuracy «was good enough I think that you can create something compelling for consumers.»
Zillow claims that the
accuracy of their
Zestimates depends on the availability of data in the area (Zillow,
Zestimate).
The «Increasing Values (%)» dataset will have a bunch of
accuracy issues as well, just like
Zestimates or any other home value estimates.
I took Zillow's error rates for a sample city, Denver, from the table above and created the graph below so you can visualize the
accuracy of Zillow
Zestimates.
You can see from the table above that the
accuracy varies from city to city but overall the median error rate for all Zillow
Zestimates in the U.S. is 6.1 %, according to Zillow.
If more people understood the true level of
accuracy / inaccuracy of Zillow
Zestimates, the damage to home sellers and buyers would be lessened.
UPDATE: Zillow greatly improved the
accuracy of their
Zestimates in June 2016 so I updated this post in July 2016.
Zillow's «
zestimates,» particularly the «Rent
Zestimate,» might as well be a random number generator for all of their
accuracy.
The lawsuit criticizes the
accuracy of
Zestimates, a critique the company is quite used to and typically responds by reminding people that they are not appraisals, and not always accurate across the board (some states are non-disclosure states, for example, so home sales data flows differently depending on location).