Zoopla/Mouseprice

whitesatin

I like to keep my eye on my home value as I know I will move in the next year or two.

I tend to look at the above sites. Mouseprice has always shown a valuation considerably higher than Zoopla. I don't mean in the valuation range but their estimate.

This month things seem to be very different, i.e. Zoopla is showing their estimate to be around £20k higher than Mouseprice. I can't think of why this would be. Mouseprice show a bit of an increase compared to last time but Zoopla is considerably more.

I live in Hertfordshire.

Any suggestions as to why this might be?

Hoploz

They're both unreliable

Davesnave

The Moon is entering Saturn's field of influence now, while Venus is on the wane....

Sorry, but some of us feel you may as well put your faith in the stars as rely on these sources for accurate estimates of your home's value.

There is only one source for determining the exact value of a property and that's the market. A house is worth what someone will pay you for it.

whitesatin

Oh, I agree with you and I don't set much store by them, especially the way things are just now. I was just wondering why, all of a sudden, they are so different from the pattern they usually take. It's not as if there's been many sales locally recently to base their valuations on.

G_M

There are all sorts or irrational things that affect the price estimates which resutl in them being unreliable.

there is absolutly no value in trying to analyse why this month it is differejt to last month - both months' estimates are meaningless.

Hoploz

I think sometimes individual property sales or spurrious trends affect the sites which work on average selling prices month to month.

If most houses in the area are 3 bed semis, but it so happens there's been one massive house in the same postcode area sold for a couple of million, it single-handedly brings up the average price. Or it could be a large block of flats has been selling, so there has been a glut of sales at a certain price level all together.

kilby_007

Something is a miss with Zoopla's area stats for sure. Across the board in all areas I've been tracking I'm seeing 2-3% rises for the 3/6/12 Monthly figures, and other people I have spoken to agree that this has also happened in their areas in other parts of the country. For this to happen there is either:-

a) A change or error in the way they calculate the area stats.
b) Incorrect historical data which has now been corrected.
c) A sudden surge in house prices in October.
d) A number of large(r) recent property sales skewing the market.

Given that I was seeing negative trends in all of my areas I think that c) is highly unlikely. I wouldn't pay the area stats too much attention anyway because they're likely to mislead. For example, in an area where only 100 houses have sold in a year with an average house price of £100K, it only takes one £1Million sale to skew the average by 9% (I think that's right but feel free to check my maths!).

exiled_red

I don't know about Mouseprice but the algorithm used by Zoopla is a nonsense and seems to be based on the last sale price and how the market has performed since, my flat an and identical neigbouring flat (both built with the same footprint, layout and fittings) are valued at £250,000 and £152,000. The neighbours flat is the higher price because he bought it in 2005 for £168,000 and mine is valued at £152,000 because I bought it just over a year ago for £145,000 (and our flat was valued at more than that when we bought it).

westv

Don't Mouseprice base their estimates on Land Reg figures? Or am I thinking of another site?

pollyanna24

I hadn't heard of Mouseprice, but had a looksie.

Zoopla has my house valued at £388,000
Mouseprice has my house valued at £429,400.

Both more than what I thought, but hey, I'll take Mouseprice's please!

exiled_red

Just looked at my place on Mouseprice. I noticed that they give a valuation but if you click on the property it gives you a range the value on my property was £161k but the range was £152k-£170k no idea what this is based on but the Zoopla price is right on the bottom end of that range.

My view is that the property (if I wanted to sell would go for higher end of the Mouseprice range ideally a bit more, based on the fact that almost identical places sell around the £165-170k price range and we've had some improvements done to our place that they haven't and these wouldn't be reflected in either valuation.

In my opinion both valuations are nothing more than speculation.