I have a question:
HI,
I have been monitoring my home on zillow. We have used this in the past to look for homes to buy. I am sure many other people do now.
I am concerned though, because now, we have our house listed in zillow. The valuation of our house is about $85 per square ft and the other houses in the neighborhood are over $100 per sq foot. Our houses were built by the same builder and at the same time. We have had our house on zillow, and the valuation keeps dropping. Can you please explain why this is? I am concerned about the validity of your valuations and am sure this is affecting the sale of our house. Because savvy buyers do look at your site. Our house seems overpriced according to your valuation and there is no "value" to our house. It appears that we are trying to rip people off. Our realtor says there is nothing she can do to help us on this site and that it is priced just right, esp when compared to recent sales.
Also, I know someone whose house a few miles away whose valuation has gone up about $80K in the last month. Is there some magic formula-using or special calculus to help some and not others.
This does not make sense and is making it difficult for us to refinance and sell our home. It is not fair to those who are in hardships.
Dear Concerned Seller:
As an agent that advertises on Zillow I asked this same question to my Zillow rep just yesterday. The answer is Zillow looks at many different numbers in order to calculate the estimate of your home but it is not able to look at your actual home and see all the updates that you have done to it.
Your agent is able to update your listing on Zillow and add all of the updates to your home such as granite counters, hardwood floors, number of bedroom, school districts, or size of lot to change the estimate. Keep in mind though that buyers are smarter than you think and know what current house values are, they likely know you house is worth if it priced right. Buyers are using sites like Zillow to see what is available on the market and see pictures of the inside of the house so make sure you have plenty of QUALITY pictures of your home available.
Good luck in the sell of your home!
Real estate website Zillow
has a provocative data point for every renter thinking about buying these days:
That move pays off after just three years on average nationwide.
The
company, which lists for-sale and for-rent information on its site, has released
a new analysis of what it calls the "break-even horizon," comparing what it
would cost to buy or rent the same home in a number of U.S. markets over
time.
The rent-or-buy calculus varies widely depending on where you
live.
In the combined Los Angeles and Orange counties, the magic number
is 4.3 years, assuming the buyer has made a 20% down payment. Buying wins out
after only 1.6 year in the desert community of Banning. But Newport Beach
residents must wait 14 years for buying to make more financial sense than
renting.
The analysis takes into account a host of factors potential
buyers should think about when considering the leap, including the down payment,
mortgage and rental payments, buying and selling costs, property taxes,
utilities, maintenance costs and tax deductions. The analysis adjusts for
inflation and forecasts home value and rental price appreciation.
Zillow
senior economist Svenja Gudell said the data should help homeowners get a rough
and immediate sense of whether buying makes sense in a particular area in
relation to their financial situation.
"For a home buyer out there, it is
really tough to get a good grip on the buy-versus-rent decision," Gudell said.
Although buying a home is a deeply personal decision, she said, the analysis
gives consumers "a sense for 'Am I ready to make this decision?'"
The new
take on the classic rent-versus-buy debate comes at a tenuous moment for the
housing market. Many analysts believe that a housing bottom has been reached but
don't expect a return to the heady days of the real estate bubble. There is
already some concern about the strength of the recovery, with home sales slowing
in June as inventory remained tight and buyers paid higher prices.
At the
same time, rents are rising, housing affordability is at record levels, and
mortgage interest rates remain very low. These factors are prompting many
renters to consider homeownership.
Stuart Gabriel, director of UCLA's
Ziman Center for Real Estate, noted that the main lesson from the subprime
mortgage debacle and the housing bust was that homeownership shouldn't be pushed
at all costs. Federal policy has been adjusted to support this new point of
view.
"One of the things we have learned in recent years is, obviously,
house prices don't always go up, and even over the very long term in certain
markets homeownership may only offer a minimal return," Gabriel
said.
"What we have all learned is to treat homeownership as a bit of a
dangerous animal. You know it's not always good, and it's not good for
everyone."
Things to consider when buying, particularly in an slowly
appreciating market, include how mobile will you be, your financial situation,
marital status, career goals and personality, Gabriel said.
Richard
Green, director of the USC Lusk Center for Real Estate, added that in many
regions buying has become increasingly attractive compared with renting. There
are also non-financial reasons for buying.
"I can enjoy living in this
house for the rest of my life, and nobody can throw me out of it," he said. "You
are consuming something, and you have control over it, and control has some
value."
Zillow's analysis, which covered more than 200 metropolitan areas
and 7,500 U.S. cities, found that buying is a better financial decision than
renting in the Riverside-San Bernardino area if you live in the home for at
least two years. That rises to 3.2 years in the area including Oxnard, Thousand
Oaks and Ventura.
The San Francisco metropolitan area's break-even score
of 5.9 years encompasses a range from two years to 24.3 years.