Zillow’s New Numbers; Our Doubts About Zillow

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

The online home valuation site Zillow.com is reporting that, based on its own valuations of home across the country, median first quarter home values dropped about 0.83 percent over the past year. Zillow puts out something called a Zindex based on its Zestimates (did the founder give all his kids names beginning with Z? Zebediah, Zeke, Zack, etc.?); I’ll give you the regional and local data first, then I’ll tell you why I have doubts about these numbers (these are median home values). Entire LA Metro Area over past year: Flat at $541,000 LA County over past year: Up 1.1% at $566,000 Ventura County over past year: Down 7.3% at $578,000 Orange County over past year: Flat at $651,000 Riverside County over past year: Flat at $388,000 San Bernardino County over past year: Up 2.6% at $367,000 My doubts: It doesn’t make sense to me that home values in the past year were falling fast in Ventura County, but were flat in the OC and Riverside County and actually rising in San Bernardino County. Zillow ranked Santa Barbara as one of the fastest-depreciating markets in the nation, losing 11.8% in median value over the past year. Maybe I don’t get out enough, but that just doesn’t sound right to me. Your thoughts? Insights? Feelings about Zillow?