Now that launch day jitters have cleared and the site is accessible—that whole "site down because of overwhelming traffic"? Total dot-com era stunt—let's see if Zillow actually, you know, works. (N.B. Early thoughts using the parent test in yesterday's comment thread.)
Verdict for NYC: not so much, at least not yet. To its credit, Zillow points out that its New York City-area data only rates 2 stars out of a possible four. Taking the long-term view, Miller-Samuel's Jonathan Miller sees possibility where others see garbage in, garbage out: "A few months ago, a national lender told me that out of the 10 major automated valuation services (AVM’s), 8 were totally unreliable, 1 was marginal and 1 was pretty good. This lays the groundwork for my initial skepticism about Zillow, but I am open minded. I think it will evolve and will have more strength in certain markets than others depending on the data they are fed."
Will one of those markets ever be NYC? Remains to be seen. Obviously, data is likely to be better for townhouses and brownstones than co-ops or condos; to that end, three maps above of townhousey parts of the East Village, Brooklyn Heights, and Harlem. Et alors?
· Zillow and G.I.G.O. [The Walk-Through]
· Rhymes with Pillow: Zillow Takes a Breather [Matrix]
· Zestimating Guccione's Block [The Real Estate]
· Is Zillow Zaccurate? [Hunt Grunt]
· Zillow Goes Live, Too Soon? [Hot Property]