It can be useful to know the value of your home for a number of reasons. Making sure your home owners insurance coverage is adequate, your proprty tax assessment is fair, and if you are considering either a mortgage refinance or moving.
One tool many people use to find the value of their home is Zillow’s Zestimate automated valuation tool. I like this tool and it can be useful in some cases but it’s not accurate enough to rely upon for a serious valuation. A home I sold this year sold for 16% more than the Zestimate at the time.
These are the stats Zillow publishes about the valuations accuracy. More than 20% of home sales are transacted at a value more than 20% away from the Zestimated value. Even at the median error of 8.6% you don’t know which direction the error is in, high or low, that has the effect of doubling the range.
From my experience in this current market Zestimates on Scottsdale homes under $500,000 are all a little on the low side. The Zestimate is lagging our rising market somewhat.
If you want to know the approximate value of your home at any time I can send you a comparable market analysis of recently sold homes and what else is on the market in your area at any time. Just drop me an email 🙂