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pkowen
2011 Feb 9, 7:50am
Zillow is hogwash. "Zestimate"? Feh. Here are actual county sale records:
4/26/2010 $723,482
8/13/2010 $775,000
4/26/2010 was a reassessment, could be a reduction of value based on owner request. 8/13/2010 was a change in ownership, sale.
I do use Redfin, it is generally more accurate and doesn't do this stupid Zestimate business. I can only guess the $47k was based on a supplemental assessment, and then applied their zestimate algorithm somehow. The actual 2010 supplemental assessment was $89,472, but the net assessed on that roll was still $768,000.
You can physically go to the County assessor's office at 555 County Center Redwood City and sign-in, and they'll give you access to a browser-based system that allows you to look up these records plus all the recorded documents (Deeds of trust, notice of default, etc.). Sadly it is not online in terms of on the public internet.
Some vendors pay for a periodic dump of the County's assessor records. Title companies also have the information. There are no live feeds of this data in San Mateo County, but I am sure some Counties do provide that.
zillow's data is pretty bad.
redfin tries a lot harder to keep their data clean:
http://www.redfin.com/CA/San-Mateo/1136-Wayne-Way-94403/home/1003569
HousingWatcher
2011 Feb 9, 11:35am
I agree. Zillow is garbage. They even nclude re-financings as sales. Guess they are too lazy to filer the data so that only what's relevant appears.
elliemae
2011 Mar 26, 2:25pm
Is zillow still up?
Yes, but the stats aren't even close to reality. I recently did a work related search in the most recent sales in 60620 and check this out:
http://www.zillow.com/homes/8612-S-JUSTINE-ST-,-CHICAGO,-60620_rb/
Zillow says $145k, recent sale 3/4 for $30,000
http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/8949-S-Emerald-Ave-Chicago-IL-60620/4118493_zpid/#{scid=hdp-site-map-bubble-address}
Zillow says $137k, sold recently $34k and selling for $50k
http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/7504-S-Green-St-Chicago-IL-60620/95033491_zpid/#{scid=hdp-site-map-bubble-address}
Zillow says $114k, sold recently $28,000
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even taking into account that these are probably foreclosures and were sold for rock-bottom prices, zillow isn't even close.
http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1136-Wayne-Way-San-Mateo-CA-94403/55007475_zpid/
Sold for $47k???
I have found quite a few listings like this... what is going on?
Also, where does Zillow get the sale data from? It says "public record," but I can't find it anywhere else online... the SM county assessor's page has some info about properties, but not about the sales. From my searches, I'd have to pay real money to the assessor for a paper copy of sale data for a specific property. How does Zillow (and Redfin) get a seemingly live feed of sale data from "public records?"