February 09, 2006
Zillow
A Seattle start-up company called "Zillow.com" just launched an amazing service that offers home real estate valuations for major markets around the county. Check it out (though the initial flood of visitors might mean slow access during business hours).
I was amused to discover that my former home in San Francisco has increased in value by $300,000 more than my home in Seattle has increased since I sold the former and bought the latter nearly three years ago. Oh, well. But I've been more than compensated for this (hypothetical) opportunity cost through the satisfaction of knowing that Mrs. Gregoire1, Deanron and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer appreciate all that I've done to raise the bar on their performance since I've moved here.
1 The other day I called Mrs. Gregoire's office to ask for an official comment. After I refered to Mrs. Gregoire as "Mrs. Gregoire", the spokeswoman tartly replied "It's Governor Gregoire". It was almost as if the spokeswoman had convinced herself that Mrs. Gregoire received the largest number of legal votes or something.
Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at February 09, 2006
10:36 AM | Email This
1. I wonder if Mrs. Gregoire's husband take any offense when people corret "Mrs. Gregoire" to "Gov. Gregoire"????????
2. Keep jabbing at Mrs. Gregoire, Stefan, keep jabbing. When they snap back at you, they're feeling the punches.
3. Wow.... According to this my modest home has gone from $104k to $219k in 12 years.
How realistic are these prices?
4. Not the most accurate bit of information. Easier to go to County web site and get assessor information.
But fun trying, though.
5. The county tax assessor sites are usually way low compared to sales prices. For example, a vacant lot in seaTac I purchased in April of 2005 for $160,000 (and happy to get it at that price), was assessed at $72,000 for 2005. It has jumped all the way up to $76,000 for 2006.
6. These are the same people who told me that forcing everyone into state employee unions was good for the state. Scary.
Are they just as offended when news outlets refer to W as MR. Bush (which happens all the time)? Somehow, I really doubt it (never mind that he won 2 counts and Algore never won any).
7. To all that Stefan does! Here, here!
8. But, inflated home prices increase tax revenues! Woo hoo! Increase income w/o raising rates! The school districts LOVE this!
9. Snohomish County is really proactive in keeping assessed values high.
10. Sock it to 'em, Stefan!
11. I'll start calling her 'Governor Gregoire' when
a) she wins the next election by a margin greater than the number of illegal or challengable (is that a word?) votes
b) I no longer hear the president referred to as 'Mr. Bush'.
That won't happen anytime soon.
12. "It was almost as if the spokeswoman had convinced herself that Mrs. Gregoire received the largest number of legal votes or something."
Probably because she did:
"In fact, as a matter of law, Bridges' ruling could hardly have been more convincing. That's what made it impossible to envision the court overturning his ruling. Bridges simply eviscerated the Republicans' case, systematically rejecting the suggestions that the election was stolen. Worse for those Republicans who will advocate continued appeals, Bridges raised Gregoire's victory margin by four votes, indicating that if he were to make more changes on the basis of the evidence and GOP arguments, the margin of victory would likely grow."
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/227316_goved.asp
So, as we all know, the only proven improper votes went to Rossi.
See also:
http://www.secstate.wa.gov/documentvault/Final%20Judgement-694.pdf
http://www.secstate.wa.gov/documentvault/Court's%20Oral%20Decision-629.pdf
13. Boy, it must hurt when even your lies can't keep you happy anymore.
14. Careful of the data quality in the Zillow database. My home is shown as a 2 bd 2 ba home when it is actually a 4 bd 2 1/2 ba home and is nearly twice the square footage they show. Its been 4 bd since the day it was built. Plus an office was added (with permits) that is not acknowledged.
15. Exactly. My just sold 2200 s.f. house is actually over 3000 s.f.
16. It's sad...I looked up my first home in the La Jolla area in San Diego, that my wife and I bought for $25,000k in 1979 is now worth $1.5 million...my home in the Brown Point area that I bought in 1988 for $188k is now worth $500k...not bad but I would have made out better in So. Ca.
17. My data is wrong too. That is because the county tax assessor has it wrong, but I'm not about to correct it with them so they can hike my appraised value. They not only have the number of bedrooms and square footage wrong, they have the number of stories wrong. Makes you wonder what house they were looking at. No worries here...
18. "Careful of the data quality in the Zillow database. My home is shown as a 2 bd 2 ba home when it is actually a 4 bd 2 1/2 ba home and is nearly twice the square footage they show. Its been 4 bd since the day it was built. Plus an office was added (with permits) that is not acknowledged."
I'm with Palouse on this one!
The King County tax assessor is probably using Zillow to update our property data! (That's just how sneaky King County government is!) The liberal's in our state probably paid Zillow to cover our properties....Just think of the incredible property tax income to be made by the state after homeowners update their information!
They have my information wrong too.....(and that's just fine by me..)
It appears that anyone can update "your" home's information? Is that correct? I just gave my sister 5 more bedrooms! snicker....
19. I just tried it on my address and it was dead-on in every description and very likely the price, as well. This is way cool! I tried it for my childhood home in L.A. and was blown away by what that humble little place is going for nowadays!
20. My 3 floor house is listed as 1 floor. The square footage is way low and the price they have is propably 200K less than what we would even consider selling for. The odd thing is the 3 houses right across from us all sold within the last 14 months and the one they claim is the most valuable sold for the least and the one that sold for the most is the least valuable. The difference in the actual selling prices was about 180K. Not sure how they could be that far off.
21. Hmmm. The 2/1.5, 1011 sq ft condo I am renting just sold for $135,900 (it's closing this month). It was assessed for the same price (which was higher than the original asking price). Zillow says it's a 2/2, 540 sq ft (which is absurdly tiny) and is worth $208,411. Another townhouse in our building (with a renovated kitchen, but without a lot of the upgrades here) just sold for $142,000, so Zillow needs to tweak their algorithms.
They do have the trend correct, though, showing the correct selling price in 2003 and the sudden spike in housing prices here (in Oak Harbor) in the last year. They have just seriously overestimated the magnitude of the spike, at least on the units in my property.