Zillow Weep For Me.

Posted in Van Nuys and the Valley

A letter written by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition asserts that Zillow.com, the home valuation website, practices discrimination against Hispanic and Black homes by undervaluing them. NCRC sent this correspondance to the Federal Trade Commission complaining that Zillow puts the minorities “more at risk for discriminatory and predatory lending practices.”

Zillow said it does not use demographic data to assess home value. 3.5 million visitors a day use Zillow and it is the fifth most popular website on the net.

My own personal experience with Zillow is a disappointment. I have Zillowed an affluent neighborhood in Northern NJ where the average home is $800,000 and Zillow showed valuations in the $500,000 range. On my own street in Van Nuys, our 3 bedroom home, built in 1959, is shown to be worth $100,000 less than my neighbor’s two bedroom, constructed in 1923.

But who knows what the real price of any home is?

4 thoughts on “Zillow Weep For Me.”

  1. The Zillow Zestimates are an absolute farce in at least one inner city minority area – this would be the 90007 zip code – as an example – the address 2653 S. Hoover at 4400 sq. ft is zillowed at $903,604 – it was thoroughly done over some time ago – and is probably worth somewhere below 2 million – Univ. of Southern California owns it.

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  2. If this action succeeds, Zillow’s estimates will be even less accurate, as they’ll have to add an affirmative action boost to minority neighborhoods in order to artificially inflate the values there, which real home buyers of course, not constrained by PC BS, would not pay, resulting in inaccurate price estimates.

    PS – For what it’s worth, my LA area home is valued quite accurately by Zillow – as confirmed by a recent paid professional appraisal.

    Based on my experience, it’s quite liked your valuation vs your neighbor’s has to do with most recent sale date and amount – take a look and compare the 2, and see if that makes any sense.

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  4. Hi Andrew, it’s David from Zillow.com.

    Just FYI – there is no lawsuit. The NCRC have sent a letter to the FTC and it’s up to the FTC’s to decide whether to investigate these claims further.

    Zillow’s response to the NCRC’s claims is posted on our blog:
    http://www.zillowblog.com/zillow_blog/2006/10/zestimate_accur.html

    Please feel free to e-mail me [davidg at zillow] if you’d like my opinion on why your house’s Zestimate (or your neighbor’s) is incorrect.

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