Zillow.com is the real estate service launched in 2006. It calculates a Zestimate-home valuation as a starting point for anyone to see -for free- for most homes in the U.S. Zillow indicates that for MD and VA they get only about 26% of predictions within the +/-5% range only.

The goal of our project was to assess whether the Zestimate values for homes located in 17 select cities of Northern Virginia, such as Herndon, Reston, Arlington etc. were accurate within +/-5% of the final market value. This helps 2 primary stakeholders - buyers and sellers. Buyers can determine if Zillow is accurate about the price of the neighborhood and bid the right price for a prospective home. It also helps sellers set their home price right which is the key to selling their home successfully in the market.