Valuation Tools
- What's a Zestimate® value?
- Why do you call the Zestimate "a starting point?"
- Does every home in the U.S. have a Zestimate?
- My house doesn't have a Zestimate. What's up?
- How do you know the Zestimate is accurate? How accurate is it?
- What's the Value Range?
- What's a Zillow® Home Value Index?
- I created an Estimate with My Estimator. Why didn't my Zestimate value change?
- Could someone enter incorrect facts in order to purposely alter their Zestimate?
What's a Zestimate?
The Zestimate home valuation is Zillow's estimated market value for a home, computed using a proprietary formula. It is not an appraisal. It is a starting point and can be used with a tool called "My Estimator" so you can create your own estimate based on the knowledge you have about a home. Read more about the Zestimate.
Why do you call the Zestimate "a starting point?"
Because we think of it as just one piece of information for buyers, sellers, and owners. Most will refine it in conjunction with other information they have about the home, an appraisal, or a Comparative Market Valuation from a real estate professional. The Zestimate is pulled from data; your real estate agent or appraiser physically inspects the home and takes special features, location, and market conditions into account. Variations in price also occur because of negotiating factors, closing costs, and timing of closing. We encourage buyers and sellers to use supplemental information to create their own estimate using the My Estimator tool.
Does every home in the U.S. have a Zestimate?
Currently, we calculate a Zestimate for more than 67 million homes. We have data - but not enough to come up with a Zestimate - on another 13 million. We are adding new data all the time, and in the coming months we expect to add Zestimates for many more homes in the U.S.
My house doesn't have a Zestimate. What's up?
We are unable to come up with a valuation for this home because we do not have the house transaction history. This is possibly because your house is in a "non-disclosure" state (Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming) where transactions are not publicly reported. We do have access to the home details and the tax assessed value, so we are showing you that information. In addition to contributing to inefficient real estate markets, this reduced visibility into home transactions is usually the subject of local controversy, since it can result in unfair taxation.
If the home is not in those states, it might be that we have the tax assessed value, market assessed value, or tax appraised value and home information from local public records, but we do not have sales transactions from our data providers for the area. We are hoping to get that soon, so come back.
How do you know the Zestimate is accurate? How accurate is it?
The Zestimate is a starting point to help a consumer figure out the true value of a home. Working with the Zestimate, consumers can create their own estimate using the My Estimator tool, adding things they may know about the home but we don't, such as remodeling information. Our data shows us that the vast majority of Zestimates are within 10 percent of the selling price of the home. (See our Data Coverage and Zestimate Accuracy table to determine how accurate it is in your area.)
What's the Value Range?
The Value Range, which is related to the Zestimate, shows the high and low values of a home (e.g., Zestimate = $260,503; Value Range is $226,638 — $307,394). The Value Range can vary in magnitude depending on our historical ability to estimate similar homes. A bigger range indicates less data or more volatility in the data. A smaller value range means we have lots of information to help compute the Zestimate and Value Range.
What's a Zillow® Home Value Index?
The Zillow Home Value Index, or Zindex® for short, is the median Zestimate® for a given geographic area on a given day. Learn more.
I created an estimate with My Estimator. Why didn't my Zestimate value change?
Updates to your home facts will be factored into your home’s Zestimate. However, your Zestimate may not change if the updates are not significant enough to impact the home’s value. Also, if your home has characteristics that are unique in your area, we may not be able to factor them into the valuation. If your Zestimate does change, it may take some time before it’s reflected on the site.
Could someone enter incorrect facts in order to purposely alter their Zestimate?
Most people who claim their homes and update their home facts tend to be sellers, and we’ve found that sellers are motivated to be truthful. After all, potential buyers can easily check the facts by going to an open house, looking at the home's flyer, etc. In addition, this content can be flagged by anyone to be reviewed by our moderators. Since we have received very few complaints to date, we do not anticipate that this will be a problem in the future. However, we will continue to watch it closely.
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