Market Value Websites: How Good Are They?

Several websites now provide detailed information about house prices around the nation. This short note is an examination of the most popular sites. The question asked is whether a site can give an accurate free estimate of the market value of a specific house. And, can that estimate be provided quickly-even instantly? After a brief look at several sites, this report concentrates on Zillow.com because this site is one of only two that provides a free estimate instantly (the other is Domania.com), and because it is the only one that provides detailed information. Other sites such as HomeGain.com, ZipRealty.com and HouseValues.com provide information on comparable sales very quickly. Taken together, the available websites can provide the user with a great deal of good information. Review of Some Websites Domania.com has you enter the street address and provides an instant response with a low and a high estimate of value. No detailed data are required or provided. I entered the address for a house that sold in January 2006 for $745,000, and the site gave a low estimate of $540,800 and a high estimate of $762,400, a range of $221,600. I entered another address with similar value and obtained an estimate with a narrower range of $135,000. This site provides a quick and easy service, but it is a "black box" in the sense that no information is provided about how the value estimate was obtained. Other websites connect the user to Domania.com. These sites include HomePriceCheck.com, and will not be considered further here. HomeGain.com has you enter the property address and instantly provides sales in the same ZIP code within 2/3 miles of the subject property for the past two years. The address, age and square footage of these properties are provided. This site is a big help to those who wish to perform their own comparative market analysis. No estimate of the subject property is provided. ZipRealty.com instantly provides the house sales that took place in the past two to three months within a one mile radius of the subject property entered. I tried the site on March 10, 2006, and sales from November and December 2005 were provided. The sales appeared on an attractive map, and were listed below the map. The data included on each sale are address, date of sale, square footage, year built, number of baths and number of bedrooms (not available for my area). This site is also therefore quite helpful for those who wish to perform their own comparative market analysis. However, the site does not provide an estimate of the value of the subject property. RealEstate.com has you enter some basic information about the subject property, and then searches its database to generate an estimate of market value. However, for my area (a popular and rather expensive area west of Chicago), the response is: Currently we do not have enough information to compile an accurate report for you. However, your real estate agent will be able to assist you and provide you with the requested information. They will be in touch with you shortly. Realtor.com provides the average list and selling price for an area for the past year, which typically is a municipality. The information is provided by local brokers. The site does not provide estimates of market value for individual houses. HouseValues.com requires that you enter information about the subject property that includes address, square footage, lot size, number of bedrooms, number of baths, parking situation and when you are planning to sell. The site follows up within a few minutes by email indicating that your request will be processed shortly and an estimate will be sent via email. A local real estate agent responded by email within two hours with data on comparable sales and a range for market value of the subject property. For my example, the market value range was very wide; the high estimate is 50% over the low estimate. However, the comparable sales information is valuable and can produce a good comparative market analysis. …