Arizona Real Estate Notebook

I think Zillow is great for getting a ballpark estimate of your home’s value… but that’s it.

They certainly are not accurate enough to determine a list price for your home.

Admirably, Zillow actually tells you how accurate/inaccurate their estimates, called Zestimates, are.

Zillow can look at their Zestimates and then at what the homes actual sold for to determine the error.

For the Phoenix-Mesa, AZ metropolitan statistical area;

• 36% of Zestimates were within 5% of the actual sale price
• 61% of Zestimates were within 10% of the actual sale price
• 84% of Zestimates were within 20% of the actual sale price
• Overall, Zestimates had a median error of 7.5%

Let’s say this another way.

• 16% of Zestimates were off by over 20%! Double Yikes!
• 39% of Zestimates were off by over 10%
• 64% of Zestimates were off by over 5%
• Zestimates were normally off by 7.5%

Zestimates are fine as long as you know how accurate/inaccurate they are.

Declining Accuracy

By the way, Zillow used to say that in metro Phoenix 28% of Zestimates were off by over 10%. Now they say 39% of Zestimates are off by over 10%. I appreciate their honesty.

As long as you know.

Forewarned is forearmed.

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