Is your Zillow Zestimate accurate?
No. Not for your house, anyway. A house is worth what a buyer will pay for it, and no formula has met your buyer.
No, not for your house. For homes that are not listed for sale, which is yours, Zillow's own median error is 7.20% across all 50 states, and half of those homes miss by more than that. On a $1,500,000 house, 7.20% is $108,000 in either direction. Source: Zillow's Zestimate accuracy table, data updated October 2, 2026.
| Area | Median error | On a $1,500,000 house |
|---|---|---|
| All 50 states | 7.20% | $108,000 |
| California | 6.56% | $98,400 |
| Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim metro | 6.73% | $100,950 |
Believe it or not, the CEO of Zillow sold his own house for $1,050,000 in February 2016. His company's Zestimate on that same house said $1,750,000. He sold for roughly 40% under the number his own engineers built. And here is the part that should bother you more: the accuracy figure Zillow quotes in public is not the one that applies to your house.
What Zillow itself says about Zestimate accuracy
Zillow splits its accuracy table in two: homes listed for sale and homes that are off market. A listed home gives the model an asking price and fresh listing details to check itself against. Zillow says so on the same page. Its table showed no median error for listed homes when we checked it on October 6, 2026, so we quote only the off-market figure.
Your house is not listed. For homes like yours, sitting quietly off market, the median error is 7.20% nationally and 6.73% in the Los Angeles metro. That is the number that applies to you, and it is not the one on the screen when you look yourself up.
It also means half of all homes are off by more than that. Zillow defines its median error as the point where half of homes sell within that percentage and half sell outside it. On a $1,500,000 house, ordinary across Calabasas, Westlake Village and Agoura Hills, 7.20% is $108,000. In either direction. And half of owners are further out than that. Source: Zillow's accuracy table, data updated October 2, 2026. Zillow refreshes it monthly, so the figure moves.
Think about what that does to you in practice. Price too high on a bad number and your listing sits. Buyers watch the days on the market pile up, decide something must be wrong with it, and you end up taking less than if you had priced it right on day one. Price too low and it sells in a weekend, everyone tells you what a great result it was, and you never find out you handed six figures to a stranger at closing.
Both of those look like a normal sale from the inside. That is the problem.
Your real number could sit anywhere in there. That is a $108,000 swing, and half of homes land outside it entirely.
Based on Zillow's own published median error of 7.20% for homes across all 50 states that are not listed for sale. Source: Zillow's accuracy table, data updated October 2, 2026.
The reason is simple. A Zestimate is an automated home valuation running on more than 100 million homes at once. The model takes the home facts in public records, your square footage, location, lot size and number of bedrooms, and blends those data points with recent sale prices nearby. Zillow's own fine print calls it a starting point, not an appraisal, and tells buyers and sellers to bring in a real estate agent for the real number. Because the model has never walked through your home. It doesn't know about the kitchen you remodeled, the view from the primary suite, the lot line that makes your yard bigger than the one next door, or the deferred maintenance a real inspection would catch. The CEO's house was an extreme case for a specific reason: Zillow had no access to sold data from the local Seattle MLS, so that Zestimate was running on public records alone.
How a real number actually gets built
No secret sauce. Four steps, and you can run every one of them yourself if you want to. For the full map of every kind of estimate and what each one is for, read how much is my house worth.
1. Comps that actually match your house
Recent closed sales on your side of the boulevard, pulled from the multiple listing service, where the real market data lives before it trickles into public records. Same style, same lot type, same view or lack of one, same school boundary. And read with the local market's direction in mind, because market trends show up in a model late, only after sales close and records post. A formula draws a circle around your address and averages whatever falls inside it. That is how a house backing the freeway ends up priced next to one backing open space. Get the comps for your house.
2. An honest read on what is dated
Roof, systems, windows, kitchen, baths, floors. Buyers do not price a dated kitchen at the cost of a new kitchen. They price it at the cost of a new kitchen plus the hassle of living through one, and they take all of it off your number. No formula sees any of this, because no formula has been inside your house. This is usually the single biggest gap between a Zestimate and reality.
3. Credit for what you already put in
Additions, permits, solar, a redone yard, a finished garage. Public records miss most of it. Every dollar of it stays invisible to a buyer unless somebody puts it in front of them on purpose. Money you already spent, sitting there uncounted.
4. What it would take to actually sell it
The number on its own is half an answer. The other half is the plan. What to fix and what to leave alone, because some repairs return nothing. The price band that pulls competing offers instead of silence. And how the first ten days are run, which is when most of the money is won or lost, long before anyone sits down to negotiate.
Want this run on your own house? Start with the free seller tools, or have us build the number for your address.
Does Zillow still buy homes?
No, not directly. Zillow shut down its own home-buying program, Zillow Offers, in 2021, after its algorithm overbid on thousands of homes and the company took a loss of more than half a billion dollars. Zillow got out of the business of actually buying houses.
What you'll see on Zillow today if you ask for a cash offer comes through a partnership with a separate company, most often Opendoor, not from Zillow itself. Know whose offer you're looking at, and whose fees and repair deductions apply.
How accurate is the Zillow Zestimate?
Zillow's own published median error for homes that are not listed for sale is 7.20% across all 50 states and 6.73% in the Los Angeles metro, in data updated October 2, 2026. That group includes most homeowners just checking their own home's value.
Does Zillow still make cash offers on homes?
Not directly. Zillow shut down its own home-buying program, Zillow Offers, in 2021 after significant losses. Any cash offer surfaced through Zillow today comes through a partner company, most commonly Opendoor, not from Zillow itself.
What is a Zestimate?
A Zestimate is Zillow's automated guess at what a home is worth. It runs on more than 100 million homes at once, built from public records and recent nearby sale prices. Zillow's own fine print calls it a starting point, not an appraisal.
How reliable are Zillow estimates?
Reliable enough to browse with, not to price with. Half of off-market homes land within 7.20% of the Zestimate and half land further out, with no way to tell from the screen which half you are in. Use it as a rough anchor and get a real number before you set a price.
Why would my Zestimate be wrong?
It's built from public records and recent nearby sales, not a walkthrough of your actual home. It can miss real things like a finished room, a view, a lot line, or recent upgrades.
What should I use instead of a Zestimate before I sell?
A real valuation that accounts for your home's actual condition and the current market in your specific neighborhood, not just public records and nearby comps.
Summary points
- No. For a house that is not currently listed for sale, which is yours, Zillow's own published median error is 7.20% nationally and 6.73% in the Los Angeles metro, in data updated October 2, 2026.
- A listed home gives the model an asking price to check against. Yours has none of that while it sits off market.
- The model cannot see inside your house. Condition, finish level, view, noise and layout are exactly what moves price at this end of the market, and none of it is in the data.
- Thin markets make it worse. A model needs recent comparable sales, and in a city with a handful of closings a year there are not enough.
- A real number is built from closed sales, adjusted for the differences between those houses and yours, by someone who has walked both.
- On a $1,500,000 house, 7.20% is $108,000 in either direction, and half of all homes land outside that range entirely. Use a Zestimate as a rough anchor. Do not price a house off it.