As part of my job, I am constantly looking at market trends and statistics. Yesterday, a post on Inman News' Facebook feed caught my attention. "Interesting stats coming from Zillow this AM - Of the 132 markets covered by Zillow, 97 percent saw home values decline."
Not totally excited, I clicked on their link and came across Zillow's Home Value Index. Below is the screen for North Dakota...do you see something missing?
Evidently, Fargo is not in North Dakota, but in Minnesota, according to Zillow. Thus the title for this blog post.
Yes, Zillow, we do serve Minnesota, however if you are going to categorize our market by Fargo, you should probably correctly identify the state...that is Fargo, NORTH DAKOTA. *For the record, the Fargo-Moorhead area's median list price in April 2011 is $154,900 down from $159,900 in April 2010. Zillow's data is a few thousand dollars off.
Many people use Zillow for its fancy bells and whistles...market statistics, Zestimates, etc. I agree that Zillow provides some very visually appealing graphs, charts and widgets. However, after finding this "little" error, it makes me question the reliability of their information even more than I had before. Frankly, their Zestimates are rarely accurate and their comparables are sometimes so far off the mark, they aren't comparing apples to apples, but apples to watermelons. (I once saw a 2-story single family home in Osgood compared to a rambler twinhome in the same neighborhood (YIKES!))
If you would like accurate market information, look to your LOCAL real estate professional. On this blog, we consistently post monthly statistics and base our information on what is happening here, not in California or New York. Park Co. Realtors' sales associates are armed with the most current information for your neighborhood and home style.
With that said, we are "amping up" our market updates - be sure to keep an eye on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube later this week - we hope you like what you see! In the mean time, here's to hoping Zillow pulls out the map and checks our location!
*Source: Fargo Moorhead Area Association of Realtors
Kristi Hardy
Director, Marketing Services
Park Co. Realtors
701.237.5031
www.ParkCompany.com
www.Facebook.com/ParkCoRealtors
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