Bad take.
Zillow is great at estimating home values and related figures.
They're NOT great at estimating those values in the future.
Re:Redfin Is Leaving NAR
by lotsofpulp on Monday October 02, 2023 @11:01PM
(#37747482)
That is a good point, but I have seen it play out over the years. When prices were going up, you can see the house price estimates lag as the most recently sold homes would sell for a higher price and all the other ones in the neighborhood take a while to update. This was late 2010s to 2022.
Then once the prices started coming down, the opposite. I am looking at multiple homes right now, with multiple markdowns, and yet all the other homes around them have the same estimated Zillow price as many months ago, which the currently listed for homes obviously did not sell at. This is mid 2022 to now.
That wasn’t the problem. If Zillow undervalued or correctly valued your house you would never sell to them, and if Zillow overvalued your house you would always sell to them. The valuations could be extremely accurate overall and it would still be a terrible business plan because of adverse selection.
Re:Redfin Is Leaving NAR
by lotsofpulp on Monday October 02, 2023 @11:41PM
(#37747708)
If Zillow was overpaying for houses, then surely they were anticipating their prices to go higher.
Re:Redfin Is Leaving NAR
by plagiarist on Monday October 02, 2023 @11:00PM
(#37747471)
They tracked their estimate accuracy all the way to the bank.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/02/business/zillow-q3-earnin...
>Zillow, facing big losses, quits flipping houses and will lay off a quarter of its staff.
>The real estate website had been relying on its algorithm that estimates home values to buy and resell homes. That part of its business lost about $420 million in three months.