With respect to Zillow, I've found its prices for Somerville to be unreliable for a couple of reasons:
1) It isn't really very good about factoring in proximity to public transportation. Being a five minute walk from the red line vs a 25 minute walk is a big difference for buyers, but looking at Zillow's comparables it doesn't seem to account for them very well.
2) It doesn't account very well for the level of supply in the market - typically there are a lot more condos available around here than single family homes, which is a little bit unusual.
3) People can edit the features of their property in Zillow and I did notice people adding questionable features the last time I was looking for property. I saw things like listing both a dining room and an extra bedroom that were really the same room, including A/C when they had window units rather than central air, etc.
If what you're looking at is the median price, I don't think it's going to tell you a lot. As the market slowed down, fewer new renovations and such will be available on the market, so the median price may move down much more than the price on any "average" unit moves down.
The article is talking about the assessed values, which will tend to change somewhat less than the market values. The statement that the assessed values declined by 2% is a statement of fact, quoted from the assessors, and you could presumably verify it by calling the assessor's office and asking them for yourself. But it's important to keep in mind that the assessed price is not necessarily the market price. Any particular property can potentially sell for significantly more or less than its assessed value.
no subject
1) It isn't really very good about factoring in proximity to public transportation. Being a five minute walk from the red line vs a 25 minute walk is a big difference for buyers, but looking at Zillow's comparables it doesn't seem to account for them very well.
2) It doesn't account very well for the level of supply in the market - typically there are a lot more condos available around here than single family homes, which is a little bit unusual.
3) People can edit the features of their property in Zillow and I did notice people adding questionable features the last time I was looking for property. I saw things like listing both a dining room and an extra bedroom that were really the same room, including A/C when they had window units rather than central air, etc.
If what you're looking at is the median price, I don't think it's going to tell you a lot. As the market slowed down, fewer new renovations and such will be available on the market, so the median price may move down much more than the price on any "average" unit moves down.
The article is talking about the assessed values, which will tend to change somewhat less than the market values. The statement that the assessed values declined by 2% is a statement of fact, quoted from the assessors, and you could presumably verify it by calling the assessor's office and asking them for yourself. But it's important to keep in mind that the assessed price is not necessarily the market price. Any particular property can potentially sell for significantly more or less than its assessed value.