Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Just how bad is Zillow?


This poor house has burned its first owner and now it is burning the bank. Probably something to do with the $9000 taxes and multithousand dollar annual HOA fees. But this isn't about the house but about just how bad Zillow has gotten as an estimator of property values. When the bank took this back at $340k zillow didn't believe it. They thought it was worth more. $394,000.

Redfin knows better becasuse the bank is having trouble selling it:
337 Kiawah River Dr
Oxnard, CA 93036
Price: $247,000
BEDS: 4
BATHS: 3
SQ. FT.: 2,084
$/SQ. FT.: $119
LOT SIZE: -
# OF ROOMS: 8
YEAR BUILT: 2007
COMMUNITY: OXNARD
COUNTY: Ventura
LISTING #: 3661102
SOURCE: Bank-Listed Foreclosures
STATUS: Bank Owned
ON REDFIN: 61 days
----
So. What does Zillow have to say about a house built in 2006? Here let them tell you with their price graph going back to 1999:

28 comments:

Northern Renter said...

First.. to say that it sucks to be back after vacation.

NR

Rob Dawg said...

Hey there distant relative!

TJandTheBear said...

My sibling's place in LV is showing a Zestimate of ~$170K where listings for the exact same model in the same neighborhood are sitting at $120K, and those aren't even the obvious FCs. Those tagged as coming from foreclosure.com show values a good $20K lower, and they're sitting too.

That puts those houses at 20% below their original sales prices in '95.

averagerainfall said...

I looked up Casey's parents' place on Zillow -- a ZEstimate of $235K, down from roughly $375K at its peak circa 2006.

That's gotta hurt, especially considering that their son is currently on the hook for between two and three times the house's current value (write-offs notwithstanding).

I await the imminent foreclosure notice soon enough. :-p

Agent #777 said...

You want zillow head-scratchers? I wish someone could explain the impetus for this house's estimate going up over 50% in less than 2 months (if the graphic is 'accurate'). Other data says up 89k (27.6%) in the last 30 days alone!
I know that me moving within a couple miles of the house would raise the value, but 89K would be feasible only as a next-door neighbor valuation ;-)
This house appears to be owned by a local real estate agent.

Entertained said...

Housing burns owners, owners burn housing, the circle of RE!

http://www.rgj.com/article/20090729/NEWS/90730001

Now I'm not claiming the owners have actually set the fire (though every time I think "they couldn't be dumb enough to think they could get away with it" it seems some criminal will come by and lower that bar). I drive by these several times a week, and I've been commenting to my wife that I was surprised development got this far without investors pulling out, other than maybe "we're so screwed already we might as well finish it and hope someone burns it down".

Before I'd ever commented though, my wife asked "Why would anyone want to live there?" 3 stories and stacked side-by-side with only tiny gaps between buildings, filling all available space between the highway, a major road, and farm homes (when the wind is just right you can...sense the cows). Combine that with declining rent rates throughout the entire development and it's easy to picture investors lamenting they didn't just go to a casino and throw it all on 'black' instead.

Lou Minatti said...

Zillow's running about 10% too much for my modest Little Crapshack on the Rice Fields.

Mr. Outspoken said...

Schwarzenneger says state employee pensions are up for cuts. It was funny in the article how they mentioned that unions insist pensions compensate for lower pay, then they followed with the census figures showing state workers are overpaid in addition to overpensioned.

serinitis said...

Casey is apparently homeless

http://steveserin.com/

The state has very few minimum wage jobs which skews gross numbers. On a job level comparison, I think the state is probably about the same as private enterprise. The state does have a good retirement system (especially for safety folks) but most of the funds for the retirement comes out of state pay.

w said...

We're not in California anymore.

TJandTheBear said...

serinitis,

Very few? What about all those farm workers in the Ventura & Central Valleys?

TJandTheBear said...

FYI, Jim has shut down comments on BubbleInfo.

serinitis said...

The farm workers do not work for the state.

TJandTheBear said...

Ah, sorry, was somehow thinking "in the state of California" vs. "California state jobs". Beats me how I got so far out of context there. My bad.

techie22311 said...

hola. Have not posted in a while. if any of you use EWT (Elliott Wave Theory) w/ your TA for investment decisions you might want to check out this guy's website.

http://danericselliottwaves.blogspot.com/

specifically this post about the grand super cycle.

http://danericselliottwaves.blogspot.com/2009/08/p2-massive-grand-supercycle-backtest.html

techie22311 said...

He is calling for Dow under 1,000 by about 2014. this chart shows the channel that goes back to the founding of our the US.(only shows the dow back to 1900). notice what happened during the great depression. the theory is that the reason we extended so far above the top of the channel is b/c of easy credit and the printing of money. This seems a bit extreme however he backs it up quite well.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_TwUS3GyHKsQ/SnTfut6OkOI/AAAAAAAABRU/2KTDnL74yic/s1600-h/GSIII.png

Lost Cause said...

The state has provided for retirements with CALPERS, which did so well for so many years that it did not require contributions from employees until very recently. Now what does Arnold plan to do with that? That guy is such a crook, that whenever he starts talking, I hold on to my wallet.

averagerainfall said...

Casey Serin -- the mentally ill homosexual career criminal gives one last update before his imminent death.

Property Flopper said...

Wildly off topic, but... Holy Shiite (as opposed to Holy Suni), this just has to take the cake for "entitlement attitude of the year"

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/08/03/new.york.jobless.graduate/index.html

Only out 3 months with a "whopping" 2.7 average and doesn't have a job. Who's fault is that? You guessed it, the university...

Peripheral Visionary said...

PF, thanks for the article loved it.

""They favor more toward students that got a 4.0."

What!? No way! Them there high-GPA kids, what with their high grades and them thinking they're better than those what can't speak English right, getting more favor than the poor folk with disadvantaged grades? Discrimination!

Monica said...

Why are Casey's parents on the hook for more than the value of their house? Weren't they just for about 50k?

Lou Minatti said...

For those who are wondering where Rob has been, he's outlining his escape plans over on CR. Rob is planning his Dawg Pound in a remote northern New England location, complete with nuclear-hardened bunker (sleeps 8), an all-weather landing strip capable of handling even the heaviest Gulfstreams, a pebble bed nuclear reactor, a small dairy farm and storage for 30,000 MRE units.

Regarding Casey, he is currently looking at edible leaves and insects.

Unfed said...

Lou: Best laugh I had all day, thanks.

Captain Nemo said...



Underwater World USA

wagga said...

Handsome?

averagerainfall said...

wagga: Casey is a flaming, campy homosexual.

The article was written in San Francisco, of all places.

Of course the author thinks that he's handsome. :-p

Jean ValJean said...

Know someone speaking ill of our Government?

Do your Duty, Citizen! (I guess that includes me now)

If you know someone out there spreading "misinformation", turn them in at flag@whitehouse.gov

Remember: IT'S YOUR DUTY.

I need to watch Equilibrium again.

Dave said...

Did anyone else notice the "Hobo 2.0" comment at the bottom of the NBC Casey article?

That sounds like a bang-up post name for Caseypedia...