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Edited by Steve Nicastro
Written by Jessica Johansen
Edited by Steve Nicastro
Home value estimators can give you a rough idea of your property’s value, but they’re not precise enough for critical decisions like setting a list price. These tools rely on general data like basic home features, recent sales, and market trends, which means they can miss important details.
A comparative market analysis (CMA) by a local realtor is a far better option for a more accurate and reliable valuation. A realtor will consider specific factors unique to your home and neighborhood, giving you a clearer picture of your property’s true worth.
The bottom line: Don’t rely solely on online estimators. Get a professional’s insight to ensure you sell for top dollar. Let Real Estate Witch connect you with expert local agents who can provide a free, detailed CMA report.
5 most accurate home value estimators, ranked
We tested the most popular home value estimators over three weeks, running properties through each estimator and comparing the results. These five estimators provided the best results.
| Company | Our Rating | Median Error Rate | |
|---|---|---|---|
Redfin |
Off-market: 7.54%
On-market: 1.96%
|
Get an Estimate | |
Zillow |
Off-market: 7.49%
On-market: 2.4%
|
Get an Estimate | |
Realtor.com |
N/A
|
Get an Estimate | |
Bank of America |
N/A
|
Get an Estimate | |
PennyMac |
N/A
|
Get an Estimate |
1. Redfin home value estimator
Redfin’s home value estimator, called Redfin Estimate, is slightly more accurate than Zillow’s Zestimate for off-market homes and active listings.
Redfin Estimate has a median error rate of 7.54% for off-market homes and 1.96% for on-market homes.1 This means that when a home on the market sells, its estimate will be within 1.96% of the sales price half of the time, and 7.54% for off-market properties.
Greater coverage compared to Zillow
Redfin’s estimator covers more homes, with home value estimates for approximately 130 million homes, compared to 104 million for Zillow.2
However, we noticed a gap in Redfin’s coverage during our tests. When entering randomly chosen properties, Redfin Estimate had trouble locating many listings, particularly in small towns and rural areas, that Zillow’s Zestimate found easily.
» COMPARE: Zillow vs. Redfin: Which Estimator Is Best?
Still a useful home value tool
Redfin’s estimator is useful compared to many others we tested. Its estimator is free, fast, and easy to use, and its home values are updated frequently (daily for active listings and weekly for off-market homes).
Redfin’s homeowner dashboard is a helpful feature. It displays relevant local sales information to help guide your pricing or marketing strategy if you plan to sell.
2. Zillow and Trulia home value estimator
Zillow’s — and its sister site Trulia’s — Zestimate is the most popular online home value estimator. It’s among the best in the business but not perfect.
Huge property database
Zillow has one of the largest databases of online home values, covering over 100 million homes, or about 75% of all homes in the country.3
Slightly less accurate than Redfin
Its Zestimate has a national median error rate of 7.49% for off-market homes and 2.4% for active listings, making it slightly more accurate for off-market properties, but less accurate than Redfin for active listings.
If you’re considering selling, your home is probably still off the market, so the less accurate one (7.49%) applies to you.
🚨 Zillow’s error rate may be misleading
The median error rate can be deceptive, masking how often home value estimators miss the mark.
Here’s the catch: Only 50% of homes fall within Zillow’s reported median error range. For the other 50%, the error rate can be even higher. So, if you use Zestimate for an off-market home, there’s a 50/50 chance the estimate could be off by more than 7.49%. For a $500,000 home, that’s a potential error of over $37,000.
Zillow Zestimates rely on the multiple listing service (MLS), tax records, and user-submitted information to complete its Zestimates, which are frequently inaccurate.
Like other home value estimators, recent upgrades or renovations likely won’t impact your valuation (unless they’ve been reported on your property’s tax records).
» MORE: How to Increase Your Zillow Zestimate in 5 Steps
3. Realtor.com home values
We put Realtor.com’s decades of industry experience to the test with its free home value estimator.
Provides multiple home values
Its home value estimator uses data from three different sources: CoreLogic, Collateral Analytics, and Quantarium — all used by mortgage lenders to help determine home values.
Obtaining multiple home value estimates from a single source is helpful for a complete view of your home’s potential value. Most other home value websites only provide users with a single home value.
Doesn’t provide a median error rate
We found no evidence that Realtor.com’s value estimates are more precise than other options.
Unlike Zillow and Redfin, Realtor.com doesn’t share its median error rate, so it’s impossible to know how accurate its valuations are.
Without this transparency, it’s challenging to gauge the precision of Realtor.com’s estimates. While Realtor.com uses data similar to that of mortgage lenders, lenders still require in-person appraisals for accuracy, rather than relying solely on automated valuation models.
4. Bank of America home values
Bank of America is one of the few large banks offering a free home value estimator, but the bank’s size and mortgage experience don’t translate into more accurate home valuations.
Fast, free, and easy to use
We plugged several single-family properties into Bank of America’s website and received home value estimates within seconds.
Besides a home value, Bank of America provides users with a complete property overview, a chart detailing the home’s value history, and a list of recent comparable sales in the area, with a map showing each home’s location.
Home value estimates aren’t perfect
We found that Bank of America often uses outdated comparable sales to determine a home’s value.
Real estate agents and appraisers rarely use comps that sold more than 6–12 months after the home’s valuation. But our analysis found that Bank of America regularly uses comps that sold over a year ago.
Like other home value websites, Bank of America likely doesn’t factor in your home’s renovations or upgrades.
5. PennyMac home value estimator
PennyMac is one of the nation’s largest mortgage lenders, servicing more than $600 billion in loans annually.4 Its home value estimator is fast, free, and easy to use, and we found its property information accurate compared to our home’s tax records.
However, PennyMac is another home value website frequently using outdated comparable sales to determine a home’s estimated value. On our test property, seven out of 10 of its comparables sold more than seven months ago.
Unlike Zillow, Realtor.com, and Redfin, there’s no option to save your home value or receive regular updates.
Other popular home value estimators
- Chase home values: Chase Bank’s home value estimator frequently uses outdated comparable sales to estimate a home’s value. And its property information is often inaccurate. For example, our test property and its comparables had the wrong number of bedrooms and bathrooms. Finally, Chase home values can’t be saved, and users can’t add renovations or improvements.
- Ownerly home values: Ownerly is the only home value estimator we tested that’s not free. It costs $1 for a 7-day trial (you can run up to 25 reports during the trial period), followed by $34.99 monthly. We found its estimates comparable to free options, including Zillow and Redfin.
- HomeLight home value estimator: HomeLight doesn’t provide any information or data about its home value estimates. It produced the lowest or second-lowest home valuation estimates in our tests. While that’s not necessarily proof that HomeLight is less accurate, it suggests that HomeLight may be using outdated or inaccurate information.
How accurate are home value estimators?
Home value estimator tools aren’t that accurate. Most online estimators have a median error rate of approximately 2% to 7%. That might not sound like much, but it can represent tens of thousands of dollars on a home sale.
Plus, the error rate gets even worse depending on where you live, whether or not your home is already listed, how long ago you bought it, and whether it was recently renovated.
A common issue with estimator tools is that their assessments are based on how much “similar” properties have sold for near you. Algorithms need to make assumptions about your property that may or may not be true, inevitably leading to mistakes.
For example, two properties may appear identical to an algorithm, but if one has a renovated kitchen, that can add $20,000 extra to the list price.
We tested the four most popular home value estimators — Zestimate, Redfin Estimate, Realtor.com, and HomeLight — using dummy addresses in a city, a suburban area, and a rural area to see how different the estimates were for each property.
| Estimator | Suburban | Urban | Small town |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zillow | $509,800 | $562,300 | $161,700 |
| Redfin | $471,596 | $597,567 | $150,951 |
| Realtor.com | $481,700 | $608,900 | $140,300 |
| HomeLight | $474,000 | $555,000 | $123,000 |
| Swing | +/–$19,102 | +/–$26,950 | +/–$19,350 |
The difference in estimates was huge — over $53,000 for our city property! That just goes to show that online home value estimates are not reliable for pricing your home properly.
To get a far more accurate estimate of your home’s value, you need to consult a real estate agent and get a free CMA.
Why getting an accurate home value matters
Getting an accurate home value is one of the most important steps in selling your house — and, in some cases, buying a house.
As a seller, an accurate home value is your main data point to price your home. If that home value estimate is off, then it could come back to bite you.
A recent study highlights the importance of pricing in real estate, revealing that the initial price in negotiations often sets the tone for the final deal. Listing your home at a higher price can encourage buyers to offer more.5 However, pricing it too high can deter interest and lead to a stale listing; pricing too low could mean missing out on significant profits.
CMAs give the most accurate home value estimates
You’ll get the most accurate home value estimate by asking a real estate agent for a comparative market analysis (CMA).
A CMA is completely free, and you have no obligation to hire the real estate agent who completes it.
Why are CMAs better than online estimators?
CMAs are in-person assessments performed by a local real estate agent, while online estimators rely on an algorithm.
Both CMAs and online estimators use recent comparable sales (“comps”) to determine your home’s value. But a realtor can handpick comps that are far more similar to your home, which results in a much more accurate home value estimate.
A realtor handpicks properties based on quantitative and qualitative factors.
They can account for factors that algorithms struggle to measure or don’t include in evaluations, like:
- Whether your house has a desirable view or is on a busy street
- The nuances of what buyers are looking for in your local market
- Photos on the multiple listing service (MLS) that give insight into other homes’ conditions
- Whether other home sales included buyer concessions, which might result in a different sale price than what you could get for your property
A realtor’s experience and local market knowledge almost always make their CMAs more accurate than an online home value estimator.
Why trust us
This guide draws on hundreds of hours of research by the Real Estate Witch team. We tested dozens of home value estimators using test properties across the country to find the ones that provide the best value for you — and to eliminate those that didn’t make the cut.
This guide also draws on our in-house experts, including:
- Ben Mizes, investor and Clever Real Estate Co-founder: Ben has a portfolio of 22 properties in St. Louis, is a licensed real estate agent in Missouri, and helped grow Clever to one of the nation’s leading real estate education platforms.
- Steven Nicastro, investor and realtor: Steve closed $6 million in real estate transactions in the challenging Charleston, South Carolina, market in 2020 and 2021. He has also written for NerdWallet, the New York Times, USA Today, the Associated Press, and U.S. News.
- Trent Seigfried, data analyst: Trent works at identifying patterns in large data sets in the real estate industry and is the founder of a number of personal finance websites.
FAQ
Should I use a home value estimator if I’m selling?
For sellers, a home value estimator will give you a ballpark estimate of what your home may be worth, but don’t rely on it to set your list price. Home value estimators are inaccurate, and a real estate agent can provide a more accurate estimate for free with a comparative market analysis.
Should I use a home value estimator when refinancing?
Just like with a mortgage, refinancing requires you to get an appraisal to ensure that the loaned amount lines up with what your house is actually worth. A property value website is too unreliable for any lender to take seriously. It's best used for a ballpark home value estimate. Learn more about home value website accuracy rates.
Because an appraisal is done in-person, the appraiser has a better idea of the condition of your home than a home estimator does. That can mean the appraised value of your home — and therefore what you can refinance it for — may be far from what an online home value estimator says.
But a home value estimator can give you a ballpark estimate of how much you may be able to refinance for — just don’t be surprised if that estimate ends up being far from what a bank will actually lend you.
Should I get an appraisal before I list my home?
Probably not. Appraisals are mostly for mortgage lenders. They don’t have much to do with getting you the best list price for your home.
In most cases, an appraisal is done after a buyer has already made an offer on your home. The mortgage lender typically requests one to ensure that the property isn’t overpriced and that the lender is giving a fair amount for the mortgage. So the appraisal is more about protecting the lender’s interests, not yours.
Unlike a lender, your real estate agent is approaching your home value as a marketing opportunity. They’re looking to land you a sale price that is both relatively high and likely to attract offers from buyers.
What is the assessed value of a home?
Assessed value is the value assigned to your property by a government assessor in order to calculate your property tax obligations. It is different from — and often lower than — your home’s fair market value, which is what your house could sell for on the market. That’s why you shouldn’t use your home’s assessed value to determine a listing price.
Assessed value differs by tax districts, but usually it is based on your home’s condition, size, and features, as well as current local property values. In some areas, the assessed value is a percentage of the fair market value.
Why do different home value estimators give different estimates?
Each home value estimator uses its own algorithm to decide how much a home is actually worth. These algorithms weigh different aspects of a property differently, which results in different home values.
For example, one home value estimator may place more weight on a renovated kitchen than another one. Or one estimator may only use sales data going back one year, while another uses sales data going back two years.
These differences begin to snowball, resulting in differences in home value estimates that can run in the tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Why doesn’t my home have a Zestimate?
Sometimes Zillow — and other home value websites — just doesn’t have enough data about a property to estimate its value. This may happen for a number of reasons.
For example, if you live in a non-disclosure state where real estate transactions aren’t publicly reported, Zillow may not have access to enough information about your home to make a Zestimate.
The other potential issue is if there aren’t enough real estate transactions in your county or ZIP code. Zestimates are based on what similar properties to yours have sold for in your area, so without that data an online home value estimate is nearly impossible. This is more likely to happen to you if you live in a rural area.
Read our Zillow home value estimator review for more information.
Related articles
How to Determine the Fair Market Value of a Home: Learn how you can find a home’s fair market value.
Companies That Buy Houses for Cash: These companies buy houses for cash, helping you sell your home quickly and conveniently — but at a cost!
How to Sell Your House Without a Realtor: Want to sell your house without a realtor? This guide outlines steps to selling without a realtor, pros and cons, and costs.
How to Find a Realtor: The best way to find a real estate agent is through a trusted source. We explain how to find a realtor that’s the right fit for you.
Sources
- Redfin. “Redfin Estimate.” ↩︎
- Zillow. “What is a Zestimate?” ↩︎
- U.S. Census. “Quick Facts.” ↩︎
- PennyMac. “PennyMac Financial Services, Inc. Reports Fourth Quarter and Full-Year 2023 Results.” ↩︎
- Harvard University. “For Sellers, The Anchoring Effects of a Hidden Price Can Offer Advantages.” ↩︎
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