A year or two ago I downgraded my estimated value of our US condo to $145K. It had been a long time coming; I knew my estimate of $160K was too high. Even $145K seemed like the high end of sale prices for comparable units in our complex, but I figured if we upgraded the kitchen and bath, spruced up the flooring and made a few other small changes, we could possibly sell it for that much.
Well, I don't have any new actual sold homes of our size to confirm this yet, but there's a place listed for $169,900 that's comparable to ours -- it looks reasonably upgraded, but not crazy high-end. The Zillow estimate of its value is $144,577, and they have tended to value condos in our complex for less than they sell for. And I found a site called Homes.com that estimates our condo's value at $155,700.
I'll be keeping an eye on that new listing to see if it sells and if so, what the sale price is. We currently owe $157K on our home, so it would be very exciting if we could consider ourselves not underwater anymore, practically for the first time since we bought it (since we paid too much, and took out a home equity loan for what little we'd paid on it, and the real estate bubble burst not too long after we bought).
Promising data on home values
August 8th, 2013 at 08:35 pm
August 8th, 2013 at 09:15 pm 1375992907
August 9th, 2013 at 07:05 am 1376028329
Zillow uses that to determine value. Lot value in my neighborhood is greater than Zillow has my house estimated.
August 9th, 2013 at 09:47 am 1376038051
August 9th, 2013 at 04:56 pm 1376063770