Zillow vs Reality: Richland Zestimates®

Between January 16, 2019, and June 14, 2019, we recorded 142 home sales in Richland. The data below reflect all Richland home sales that we tracked.

Median Error Rate

Median error rate is the primary metric that Zillow uses to gauge the accuracy of Zestimates®. In late January 2019, Zillow said its median error rate nationwide is 4.5 percent. That means half of all Zestimates® are within 4.5 percent of the actual sales price.

Zestimates® in Richland are more inaccurate than they are across the Tri-Cities as a whole, and worse than neighboring big cities like Seattle and Portland. Based on our research, the median error rate of Zestimates® in Richland is 8.2 percent. In other words, half of the Zestimates® in Richland are wrong by more than 8.2 percent of the actual selling price and half are wrong by less than 8.2 percent.

For comparison, our research shows the median Zestimate® error rate across the whole Tri-Cities is 5.6 percent. Seattle’s median error rate is 2.2 percent and Portland’s is 1.5 percent, according to Zillow’s own tracking.

Are Richland Zestimates® Too High or Too Low?

In Richland, Zestimates® are usually higher than the actual sales price. Of our 142 homes tracked, the Zestimates® of 120 homes (85%) were higher than the sales price. The Zestimates® of 22 homes (15%) were lower than the actual sales price.

Range of Zestimate® Inaccuracies

On its website, Zillow measures how many Zestimates® are more than 5, 10 and 20 percent wrong. We’ve done the same thing with our Richland data.

5 Percent Wrong

68 percent of all Richland Zestimates® were off by 5 percent or more.

10 Percent Wrong

40 percent of all Richland Zestimates® were at least 10 percent off.

20 Percent Wrong

13 percent of all Richland Zestimates® were at least 20 percent off.

Zestimate® Accuracy & Inaccuracy in Dollars

We can also look at the accuracy/inaccuracy of Zestimates® in terms of how many dollars they were off when compared to the actual sales price.

• 34 homes (24 percent) had a Zestimate® that was at least $50,000 off.
• 17 homes (12 percent) had a Zestimate® that was at least $75,000 off.
• 4 homes (3 percent) had a Zestimate® that was wrong by $100,000 or more.

On the flip side:

• 14 homes (10 percent) sold with a Zestimate® that was within $5,000 of the sales price.
• 5 homes (4 percent) had a Zestimate® that was within $2,500 of the sales price.
• 3 homes (2 percent) sold with a Zestimate® that was within $1,000 of the sales price.

Most & Least Inaccurate Richland Zestimates®

Among the 142 Richland home sales/Zestimates® we recorded, the most egregiously wrong Zestimates® were:

• A home sold with a Zestimate® that was $117,529 more than the actual sales price — the most inaccurate Zestimate® by dollar amount.
• A home sold with a Zestimate® that was 70 percent higher than the actual sales price — the most inaccurate Zestimate® by percent.

The least inaccurate (or most accurate) Zestimate® was a home that sold for just $13 more than the Zestimate®.

Monthly Trends

All Richland Zestimates® improved over the course of our study. The percentage of Zestimates® that were wrong by at least 10 percent and at least 20 percent saw the most significant changes, dropping from 58% to 22% and 25% to 4%, respectively.

(Note: For monthly trends, we’re not including January and June because we don’t have a full month of data for either.)

Navigation

1. Zillow vs Reality: Introduction
2. Zillow vs. Reality: Key Takeaways
3. Zillow vs. Reality: All Tri-Cities Zestimates®
4. Zillow vs. Reality: Kennewick Zestimates®
5. Zillow vs. Reality: Pasco Zestimates®
6. Zillow vs. Reality: Richland Zestimates® (this page)
7. Zillow vs. Reality: West Richland Zestimates®
8. Zillow vs. Reality: Home Value Comparisons
9. Our Methodology