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A comment on Zillow faces lawsuit over ‘Zestimate’ tool that calculates a house’s worth. Parent comment

Re:Zillow faces lawsuit over ‘Zestimate’ tool that calculate... by BeetleB on Wednesday May 10, 2017 @04:47PM (#14311556)
>I wonder what would her argument be if Zillow simply reported the City/County tax assessors estimates which are usually even lower than Zillow's.

County assessors for tax purposes are explicitly not trying to determine market price. Zillow should ignore it.

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Re:Zillow faces lawsuit over ‘Zestimate’ tool that calculate... by leftandright on Wednesday May 10, 2017 @06:34PM (#14312342)
I'm not sure what you mean.

In Illinois (the state from the article) the assessor is calculating the market value:

Most real property in Illinois must be assessed based on its value on the open market, or its “market value.” This value is the amount at which a property would sell in a competitive and open market... [1]

[1]http://tax.illinois.gov/Publications/LocalGovernment/PTAX100...

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Re:Zillow faces lawsuit over ‘Zestimate’ tool that calculate... by BeetleB on Wednesday May 10, 2017 @07:13PM (#14312583)
Then it likely varies from state to state - or county to county.

See http://www.investopedia.com/articles/tax/09/calculate-proper... for different methods used. As an example, some places merely look at the cost of replacing the house if destroyed.

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Re:Zillow faces lawsuit over ‘Zestimate’ tool that calculate... by skwirl on Wednesday May 10, 2017 @07:38PM (#14312733)
That's not how it worked where I grew up in Upstate New York. The assessed value was a number way below market value, but assessed values among different houses pretty much differ by the same proportions as the actual market values. I do not know why it is the case.
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