Home Value Estimates

We provide complimentary, no obligation home value estimates for any homeowners considering selling their property in the next 12 months. Expert Realtor home valuations always outperform online estimates.

If you’re thinking of selling your home in the next twelve months, Stephen would love to tour your home and provide a pricing estimate. Call today to set an appointment.

Stephen FitzMaurice, Realtor
4% Max. to Sell a Home
Cancel Anytime Policy
Licensed Since 2003
503-714-1111

Homeowners are Becoming More Accurate at Predicting Home Value

September 1, 2023

We’ve been reporting on the discrepancy between what homeowners believe their home is worth and actual market value for several years. During that time the trend of homeowners overestimating their home’s value held steady, as it had been doing for years. According to a June 2020 article published in the Journal of Housing Economics, “… in most scholars’ opinion, dwelling owners tend to overvalue their properties by about 5%.” Recently though, we’re seeing an interesting deviation from the tendency of homeowners to be overly optimistic about potential sales prices – to now underestimating the market value of their home by an average of 0.77% – a difference determined by comparing homeowner opinions with appraiser estimates. A Shift in Homeowner Perception...

Top 4 Free Home Value Estimates to Check, Before Selling a Home

August 7, 2023

Curious about your home’s value in a fluctuating Portland real estate market? I get it. Licensed since 2003, I’ve seen the ups and downs of Portland real estate pricing. In fact, I keep a category of this site dedicated to home value articles of interest and create greater Portland metro real estate reports – monthly. Whether they should or not, these online home value estimate websites drive customer perception about what their home is worth. While none of these sites can estimate a home value with the accuracy of a licensed appraiser or experienced local seller’s agent, there are better and worse home value sites because they come with different feature sets and levels of accuracy. 4. Redfin.com’s Home Value...

Is the Zillow Zestimate® Accurate? 2023 Update

May 19, 2023

These days, anyone interested in selling or buying a home is familiar with the home search engine Zillow and the proprietary Zestimate® formula it uses to place an estimated value on a property. Many times people will be motivated to make decisions about selling their home based on the Zestimate® they discover online. Or buyers may feel like they must offer a certain price based on a number generated by Zillow. But unfortunately, this price estimate can be misleading and has a wide margin of error according to Realtors, other sites, and even Zillow. This might cause you to wonder why Zillow would continue to post the Zestimate® and what is useful for if it cannot be trusted to accurately...

Portland Home Value Estimate, Realtor Vs. Online

July 29, 2022

Updated 05/2023. The real estate market is shifting fast in Portland, Oregon and around the country. We’ve got your latest month by month report on the Portland market here. If you’re looking for tips on remodeling to improve your home value before going to market, we’ve got that too. You Can’t Trust Online Home Value Estimates When the real estate market is shifting fast, online estimates designed by algorithms get worse and they weren’t good to begin with. In fact, Zillow’s Zestimate is so bad, it nearly bankrupted the company in 2021 when they briefly turned into an online cash home buyer before loosing half a billion dollars in the process. But again, when the real estate market is actively...

Homeowners Overestimate Home Value as much as 150%

May 17, 2022

If you’re thinking of selling your home, you’re probably wondering how much it has appreciated since you bought it. According to a survey conducted by Rocket Homes, which polled 2,058 homeowners, if you were to guess, the accuracy of that guess probably depends on how long you’ve owned your home. (Learn more about the survey’s methodology.) When someone buys a home—probably the biggest investment of their lives—they naturally expect that the home will build equity and grow in value. It’s a reasonable expectation to have, after all, but the rate at which that value builds depends on a number of factors: location, neighborhood comps, the home’s age and condition, updates and upgrades, and the state of the current market, to...

Is the Zillow Zestimate Accurate? 2022 Update

May 9, 2022

If your look up your home’s value on Zillow’s valuation tool, Zestimate®, you may feel strongly impacted by the price that comes up. It may not be accurate, though. Zillow even says so on their site. So, why is that? And what good is it if you can’t count on it to give you an accurate estimate on your home’s worth? They post this disclaimer: “A Zestimate incorporates public, MLS and user-submitted data into Zillow’s proprietary formula, also taking into account home facts, location and market trends. It is not an appraisal and can’t be used in place of an appraisal.” (They even provide a table of error rates for cities across the U.S. within 5%, 10%, and even 20%...

Is the Zillow Zestimate Accurate? 2021 Update

April 19, 2021

We’ve all been there: you get that email from Zillow telling you how much more your home is worth than what you paid for it even a few short years ago. It’s an enticing idea, to think your house has gained so much equity, and that you could profit off of that. And Zillow’s Zestimate tool, which gives you a quick estimate of your home’s value has been around for years. On top of that, the site gets a ton of traffic, and it’s generally a good idea to have your home listed there. So that must mean the Zestimate is pretty reliable, right? Think again. While the Zestimate is undoubtedly tempting, it doesn’t tell the whole story. And Zillow...

Home Value Estimates – Online vs. Realtor

July 20, 2020

Online Home Value Estimates are Fast and Hassle Free There is no reason not check your home value online on occasion. In most cases the online value will be in the general range of its real estate market value. However, when you’re getting ready to sell, say anytime in the 12 months prior, you should have a professional, a top real estate agent come out and see your home and give a true value. Online estimates, even in 2020, are not at all close to the actual homes value! See our report on Zillow Zestimates in 2020, and how off they are (and how Zillow cheats to make them look better then they are). While there are more sources for...

Portland Home’s Values Higher than Owners Think – 2020 Report

June 8, 2020

The common perception of home sellers is that they are al too attached to their homes, and always overestimate value. This is not true! Sellers actually both over-value and under-value their homes depending on market conditions. When the real estate market is stable, sellers tend to estimate their homes value fairly accurately. When the market is dropping fast, sellers tend to lag behind and think their homes are still worth more than they are. When the market is increasing fast, sellers lag behind and often think their home is worth less than it is. Quicken Loans has been putting together a yearly report on the difference between seller estimated value and actual appraisal value and the results are illuminating. Portland...

Is the Zillow Zestimate Accurate? 2020 Update

May 1, 2020

Anyone buying or selling a home in 2020 will frequently come across Zillow’s listing platform and the home-value estimation tool it uses: The Zestimate. Most take the Zestimate as a semi-accurate prediction of the home’s final sales price. But how often is that true? And what goes into creating the Zestimate? Off by $20,000 to $50,000 in most cases. Using Portland, Oregon as our subject for testing the Zillow Zestimate we look closely at the data. First we should note, Zillow has never claimed that the Zestimate is perfect. In fact, Zillow’s website clearly states that the Zestimate “is not an appraisal and it should be used as a starting point.” The disclaimer encourages buyers, sellers and the merely curious...