Santa Cruz County Home & Community Information

HOW ACCURATE ARE ZILLOW'S ZESTIMATES OF SANTA CRUZ HOME VALUES?

Zillow is a huge Real Estate Website for consumers and there is a lot of good information there for home buyers and sellers.  Zillow has great maps that show what properties are for sale near yours and what has sold recently. 

In doing research to buy or sell a home many people look at Zillow's Zestimates for Santa Cruz home values.  I have heard many a time "well zillow says my home is worth __ so I want to do this" or "Zillow says the home is only worth ___ so I won't offer more than that"

So how accurate are Zillow's zestimates of Santa Cruz home values?  According to Zillow's website 68% of the homes sold in Santa Cruz were within 20% of the Zestimate that Zillow had for the home.  This means that for 32% of homes sold in Santa Cruz, Zillow's Zestimate was off by 20% or more.

Only 20% of homes sold in Santa Cruz were within 5% of Zillow Zestimate for home value.

These indicators show that Zillow's zestimates are not highly accurate valuations of Santa Cruz homes.  There is no way a Zestimate can be totally accuate because Zillow does no go to a neighborhood or go inside a home to see what upgrades or ammenities it may have.  In Santa Cruz, you can literally have a $500,000 home next to a million dollar home.  Santa Cruz neighborhoods and homes are not uniform.  Also being close to the ocean or having an ocean view home will drastically change a home's value.

One example:  There was a seller of a home in Santa Cruz who saw at one point that their home on Zillow had a Zestimate of $1.6 million.  There were homes literally across the street from them that did sell in this price range because they had big ocean views and upgraded interiors.  This home was an original 1950's home with a small peak of the ocean.  It ended up selling in the mid $600k range.

Bottom line:  When looking to buy or sell a home in Santa Cruz contact a Realtor or appraiser to get a more accuate value for a property.