Zillow is all wet, as far as I am concerned. Especially when it comes to putting fair market value on Texas homes. I started reviewing two of our houses last year to see what they would predict (ours and DD's newer house). First matter of business is that home sales prices in Texas are not made public to anyone who does not have a RE license. So, presumably, Zillow is shielded from that data. (I guess they are, anyway)
Case; DD bought a 2000 sq.ft. tract home in Spring, Texas in a very nice subdivision of ~100 homes, surrounded by homes up to a couple million dollars (Creekside, The Woodlands and Augusta Pines.
Her home is one level built in 2007, brick and hardi on the outside, granite counters, fireplace, indoor laundry, etc. She paid $127,000 in late 2012. A nice home for a starter family (which she has not started BTW
).
In the last 6 months, Zillow has priced that home from mid $130K to $212K. Then after the $212K valuation, they dropped it to $156K. Now how can anybody in their right mind deal with that crazy data?
Oh, the Zillow valuation on our house was 15% less than what we sold it for in March of this year. And we sold it in one day.