How Accurate is Your Zillow Zestimate?

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Today we are excited to be discussing Zillow’s Zestimates and their accuracy here in Boston. Zillow has become the #1 online resource for online home valuations, and many people log on to get an idea of what their home is worth through their very own automated “Zestimate.” But how accurate is this estimation really?

In Boston, the median error on Zestimates is an astonishing 8%, a pretty wide margin for error. By taking your Zestimate to heart, you could be costing yourself thousands of dollars, and seriously under or over-valuing your home. In fact, 65% of the values you see on Zilllow are off by at least 5%. The way a Zestimate gets your home’s value is by using an algorithm that includes things like the number of bedrooms, number of bathrooms, and square footage. 

Those are all good ways to determine a home’s value, but they are leaving out some crucial aspects in their formula. Home improvements and renovations can drastically improve the value of the house, as can its location. Zillow doesn’t take that into account, so they have no idea what your home is really worth, hence the 8% median error. 

If you’d like to get the true market value of your home, please give me a call or send me an email. I’d be happy to help you out.