Well, as we all knew, prices fell: The average sale price for December 2009 was down 5.6% compared to December 2008, while the median sale price dropped 2.6%. For the year, the average sale price was down 8.5% compared to the 2008 level. The median sale price fell 9.1%.
But sales were up: Sales activity this December in Greater Lane County continued to grow when compared to last December. Closed sales rose 38.4% and pending sales were up 24%. New listings also increased 26.9%.
More here.
Most people we know acknowledge that Zillow is not the place to find the value of their home. It can be fun to mess around with, but is more often wrong than right. We like to check it against just sold homes every once in a while.
Tonight we chose 7 homes that sold last month in different areas and price points:
As you can see, 4 sold for less than their Zestimates (though one was very close), and 3 for more than their Zestimates, (2 for much more). Zillow appears not to have given any value to the acreage on the Willamette St. property. The Oakway Rd. property is a good example of what happens because they don’t know values of specific areas.
Zillow doesn’t know where one neighborhood ends and another begins, or where a desireable school’s boundaries are and doesn’t seem to adjust at all for ages of homes. This is obvious in areas such as College Hill, where Zillow will compare desireable older homes in the South Eugene High School district to average off-hill homes in the Churchill High district.
In short, where Zillow does best is in large subdivisions of similar homes built at the same time; suburban areas where the houses are all surrounded by like homes.
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