The best things in life appreciate at 17% annually
According to Zillow, I made almost $100,000 last year just by living at home. At least that’s what their real estate appreciation stats say for my house - which starts from an estimate for 12 months ago which I already think is wildly optimistic and way above what I paid for it. Word from a few colleagues indicate wildly varying tales of over and under valuation for their homes, too. I’d love to believe the hype, but until somebody offers me over half a million dollars for my house, I’m going to find it hard to buy in.
Incidentally - Zillow launched last night at midnight and either massively miscalculated first-day interest in their site or were massively unprepared to scale to that demand. It’s basically unavailable right now.
Eva said,
August 18, 2007 @ 12:00 am
interesting
according to Zillow my house’s value went DOWN $30k (8%) since we bought it LAST MONTH. arrrgh!
Patrick said,
August 18, 2007 @ 12:00 am
That sucks!
Just be careful to consult zillow before you make any home modifications, too. For instance we’ve thought about putting a new bathroom in our place. Moving from 1 bath to 1.5 or 2 seems like it would increase your home value, right? Not so - we’d see a $5-10k value drop if we added a bathroom! I have no idea how that adds up…