Finding the Values of U.S. Homes

Talking about the "real estate bubble" is a popular parlor game these days. Now you can find your own estimates for how over-or-under valued your neighborhood is thanks to a new web site called Zillow.

Zillow is a free service that's very easy to use. Simply enter an address, street or neighborhood together with a city, state or zip code, and Zillow searches through the information it has compiled on more than 60 million residential properties in the U.S. to provide you with an approximate valuation of the property.

Results are displayed on a map that you can zoom in or out or drag around. If you requested information on a specific property, its "zestimate" is displayed in a pop-up box, showing estimated price, number of bedrooms, baths and square feet, and links to see more details or view information about comparable homes.

Zillow calculates this estimate by taking "zillions" of data points, mainly from public records, and entering them in a formula.

Zillow relies on different sources of data than the proprietary MLS databases used by realtors. This means that while many of the estimates are reasonably close to an accurate valuation, others are less so.

----edited from Chris Sherman, SEW