http://money.cnn.com/2008/12/15/real_estate/underwater_borrowers_near_12million/?postversion=2008121504

 Thanks Zillow!  Ok seriously, this is news that we’ve all been hearing about for quite some time, and now Zillow is putting numbers to it, which is very staggering.

In some markets we’re seeing that people are getting killed by decreasing sales prices, they’re probably not only losing gained equity, but also some of the initial investment that they put down on the house.  That’s scary.

Here in Montana, we’re not seeing the massive “lost value” in homes, our median has held steady at $220k for quite some time now, and last I checked our average sales price has dipped by about $8,000.  Also, don’t believe Zillow here in Montana, we’re a non-disclosure state which means that sales data is not public record. 

Zillow does it’s best to make a good guess in Montana, sometimes it’s close! About 10 months ago when I sold my house on the west end of town I sold it for just about $228k, Zillow at the time said it was worth $219k.  Now in doing another check Zillow tells me the house is worth $192k - which would be way lower than any other house selling out there.  Also I checked my parents house that’s in the university area, Zillow thinks that the house is worth about $333k.  There’s been a few sales right across the street from my parents and those averaged out to around $475k.  So…. looks like Zillow’s off, by a bunch.

In Montana check with a Realtor who has MLS access for value researches, we can do that, Zillow can’t.