I saw this site on Fox5 news this morning. It's nice to know that my home is still valued quite high in today's economy...

http://www.zillow.com/search/RealEstateSearch.htm



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 02/26/2008 10:09AM by Tia2.

Tia2 Wrote:
>> nice to know that my home is still valued quite high in today's economy...

Mine too, that's excellent. If these are the hard times, so be it! I think most of the people who are getting hit are folks who waited too long to get in the market. People who bought 8-10 years ago in the right zip codes are still making a killing.

God Bless Northern Virginia.

Zillow is too optimistic. I just had a friend begin to consider putting his home on the market to move out of state, and the Zillow amount and the opinions of a couple of real estate agents were off to the tune of _15%_, and the price the agents wanted to list for was still about 5% over closeby foreclosure properties. Zillow is good for pulling up a map and checkout out what is on sale around you and how long they have been on the market, but not as useful for giving you a number on your own house.

Don't forget that bank-owned properties that are now flooding the market are usually priced well under value to move them off the books. That depresses the prices of all the houses around them.

Zillow doesn't take into account any house specific info.- like we renovated and put a huge addition- it bases the value on tax records which is outdated and not accurate (per cty we have 2 less bedrooms than we do). I would never think of selling or buying a house based on zillow prices. but it does help with homes for sale and give you an idea of neighborhoods (like if all houses on a street are valued over 1M then you know it's a M neighborhood- versus a $1M house next to 500K houses).

Oh without a doubt it's overstating values, but it does show that the doom-and-gloom of our current economy hasn't cast its full shadow over our area. Unless you bought at the wrong time or were expecting to triple the value of your home in a short amount of time, things really aren't looking too bad.

Right, the impact of the current environment truly depends on each household. If you got a liar loan or bought a house in late 2006/early 2007 to flip it, both of those moves have created a world of hurting for many. Hopefully that's a lesson learned for people buying houses for ten times what they make. Yeah there were a lot of unscrupulous lenders, but there is an equal problem of people buying more than they can afford and knowing it and tricking the system with no-documentation loans.

And now with "interest rate freezes" as a surprising topic on the table, we may end up with people who basically stole the houses they are living in sticking with under-prime rates while the rest of us have to take market rates. It's bad enough everyone has to share the economic downturn consequences... those of us who played by the rules and bought what we could afford have to watch those who didn't get bailed out and it is infuriating.

I don't have a problem with plans that refinance people to current-market fixed rates if they can afford it, but letting a thief or idiot, depending on the situation, sit pretty with a well-below-market teaser rate is a travesty and I hope those ideas fail.

The problem with making people take their free market medicine is that they might throw up all over the economy.

Or, I'd rather pay $200-$300 in taxes to subsidize the stupid than lose my job in an ensuing recession.

There won't be a recession in which the holy fire of the free market only descends on the greedy, stupid, Democrats, etc.

Zillow is just another estimate site, one of many

How much your house is really worth - you can find out when you sell it :)

I did not promise that it was accurate..but I found the information comforting.

See this article in the WSJ:

http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB117142055516708035-O6WPplch_duU0zq_zhjQaI19vIg_20080214.html?mod=rss_free

This site is supposed to be Zillow's competition according to the article below:

http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/03/29/zillow-has-competition/

Check it out...

http://www1.realestateabc.com/home-values/



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/26/2008 11:46AM by Tia2.

I checked mine on Zillow and it was too high by 20-25%. Zillow doesn't actually go in the place. Even FX county doesn't rate mine as high. Good thing about zillow though is if I stick it on the market for a realsitic price people will think they are getting a deal.

Thank you, Diane!
Don't forget to balance with the Fairfax site:
http://icare.fairfaxcounty.gov/Search/GenericSearch.aspx?mode=ADDRESS

pgens Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> And now with "interest rate freezes" as a
> surprising topic on the table, we may end up with
> people who basically stole the houses they are
> living in sticking with under-prime rates while
> the rest of us have to take market rates. It's
> bad enough everyone has to share the economic
> downturn consequences... those of us who played by
> the rules and bought what we could afford have to
> watch those who didn't get bailed out and it is
> infuriating.
>
> I don't have a problem with plans that refinance
> people to current-market fixed rates if they can
> afford it, but letting a thief or idiot, depending
> on the situation, sit pretty with a
> well-below-market teaser rate is a travesty and I
> hope those ideas fail.
-----------------------------------------------
A freeze would be annoying in many ways, but keep in mind most plans currently being discussed involve a temporary freeze for around 3-5 years, not a permanent freeze. So some of the moron loans would filter out of the economy during that period, mitigating the overall effect. And plenty of idiots would still end up getting screwed when the temporary freeze ended.

We just received our current home assessment from Fairfax County today in the mail. Ours went down $30,000 from the 2007 assessment.

Mine went down 19K

Mine went down about 20k, which is cold comfort given my assessment went up in 2007 when it shouldn't have as sale value were already on the decline.

The realestateabc site is way out of line for my neighborhood - it reflects 2005 prices. Zillow is a bit high in my view, but not anywhere near as unrealistic as their competitor.

Well that sucks. No change at all in my assessment. I guess last year's big drop was a bit too much. Bummer. I had really planned on using that extra money to pay for higher gas prices and metro fare hikes.

My house went down and my property went up! ZIP code 22015. House and property together have gone UP! Is this situation happening to others?

Got our evaluation today -- up to $375k from $360.

Tia2 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I saw this site on Fox5 news this morning. It's
> nice to know that my home is still valued quite
> high in today's economy...
>
> http://www.zillow.com/search/RealEstateSearch.htm

You would do much better checking at trulia.com to see what homes have sold for in your neighborhood. You can search there for homes on the market and for homes recently sold in your neighborhood. Your home is worth only what someone is willing to pay for it.

Or go to the county site and see what your home is worth and to see what houses sold for in your neighborhood:
http://icare.fairfaxcounty.gov/Main/Home.aspx

Home Owner Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> My house went down and my property went up! ZIP
> code 22015. House and property together have gone
> UP! Is this situation happening to others?

Yup. Search the county site, it's happened to everyone. Suddenly we all have VERY valuable property.

http://icare.fairfaxcounty.gov/Main/Home.aspx

This is a good blog on local real estate markets:
http://novabubblefallout.blogspot.com/

oh god, not that blog again.

LONG TERM, real estate will GROW.

just wait the fuck out.

Duh. That's hardly the point, now. Some people can't afford to wait it out. Some people HAVE to move. Even more have to pay taxes.

yeah, well thats the homeownership requirement.

if you cant afford it - dont buy it.

thats the reason we are in this fucking mess to begin with.

its simple.

I know that I cant afford a ferrari, so what do I do? I STAY THE FYCK AWAY FROM IT


LOL

there :)

Who said anyone here couldn't afford their home?

Since I bought 20 years, no problems here.

yPtWM Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> oh god, not that blog again.
>
> LONG TERM, real estate will GROW.
>
> just wait the fuck out.


Long term, yeah, as in 20 years from now. Sorry folks, your home isn't worth anything close to what you think it is. And it will be worth 10% less by next year (20% adjusted for inflation) and so on. Ever heard of Japan's housing crash? Far less severe than what we're about to go through, but it's lasted for a LONG time. Enjoy your make-believe equity.



Nationwide housing prices are crashing, but northern VA is one of the WORST of all the markets. Go ahead and keep your heads buried in the sand.

stinkypoon Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>
> Long term, yeah, as in 20 years from now. Sorry
> folks, your home isn't worth anything close to
> what you think it is. And it will be worth 10%
> less by next year (20% adjusted for inflation) and
> so on. Ever heard of Japan's housing crash? Far
> less severe than what we're about to go through,
> but it's lasted for a LONG time. Enjoy your
> make-believe equity.
>
>
>
> Nationwide housing prices are crashing, but
> northern VA is one of the WORST of all the
> markets. Go ahead and keep your heads buried in
> the sand.

You must rent, as the equity I have built up in my home is in no way MAKE-BELIEVE...

Equity is only what you believe you can sell your property for, minus fees and balance owed so in that sense it is in fact based on beliefs and not hard numbers. Everyone I know who has had to sell in the past year has been unpleasantly surprised, so it likely that people who haven't had a real estate agent tell them what they would list the house for have a somewhat inflated view of their equity.

So the term "make-believe" may be a little harsh, but there is truth in it. A gain isn't a gain until the property is sold, and no one knows how far down prices will go or how high foreclosures will end up. Until the bank properties flush through the market you can count on depressed prices and very long listing times.

20 years?

is that a magical number you came up with or are you speaking from hard facts?

And not everyone OWES balance.

I know a few folks who paid out their houses years ago.