At Zillow, we crunch a lot of data about housing prices. Every day we “re-Zestimate” about 70 million home values, almost every house in the country. We roll up all that data to create a “Zillow Housing Index” or Zindex, which is the median Zestimate for any geography. We then publish all of this data for the press and for real estate junkies. Sometimes all of the data can be a bit overwhelming. So let me break it down for you. Here’s the note that I drew a few weeks ago while I was on a media tour talking about home prices. (Hence the "Empire Hotel" letterhead -- it's in New York, and it's a very nice hotel which isn't very expensive for New York, in case you're curious.)
So what does this mean? It says that if you have an expensive house close to the city center, you’re doing ok. If you have a less expensive close to a city center, your house value is declining. If you have a less expensive house out in the burbs, you’re doing OK. But if you have an expensive house far from a city center you’re really in trouble. There, I’ve just saved you hours and hours of pouring through our data.
If you want a much more in-depth analysis, check out Dr Stan Humphries' interviewed here on Marketwatch radio.
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