Redfin Estimate Uses Sophisticated Algorithm to Maximize Accuracy, with Industry’s Lowest Published Error Rate
SEATTLE–December 3, 2015–Redfin, the next-generation real estate brokerage, today announced the Redfin Estimate, an automated home-value estimate. Users can find the Redfin Estimate for a home by typing an address into the search box on Redfin.com. The Redfin Estimate is displayed next to the last-sold price for homes that are not for sale, and below the list price for on-market homes.
The Redfin Estimate has the industry’s lowest published error rates, with a 1.96 percent median error for homes that are on the market, and 6.23 percent for all other homes.* It also displays several of the most relevant comparable homes used to calculate the estimate, based on a blend of similarity, distance, and how recently the comparable homes sold.
“Never before has a broker marshaled all the data available in local multiple listing services to estimate the value of homes across the U.S.,” said Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman. “Rule changes from the National Association of Realtors have made new troves of detailed home data available for pricing analyses, and massive cloud-based computing resources have increased the potential depth of these analyses by an order of magnitude. The result is a second generation of home-value estimates that can be significantly more accurate than their predecessors.”
At launch, the Redfin Estimate is available for more than 40 million homes in 35 major U.S. metro areas, including both for-sale and off-market homes.** The Redfin Estimate is free to consumers. Homeowners can also contact a Redfin real estate agent to discuss what their home is worth, with no obligation to list the home for sale or work with Redfin.
The Redfin Estimate operates on cloud technology and uses the most complete and up-to-date data available on home listings and sales. As a real estate brokerage, Redfin has 100 percent complete, direct access to multiple listing services (MLSs), the databases that real estate agents use to list properties. This gives Redfin information about homes that non-brokerage real estate websites don’t have, like whether a home is located on the water or has a view or is located on a busy street. Anyone can sign up for Redfin Home Report emails to get updates on a home’s value and be notified when the home’s Redfin Estimate changes.
To read Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman’s blog post on the Redfin Estimate, click here.
*This means that when a home that is on the market sells, the Redfin Estimate at that time will be within 1.96 percent of the price half of the time.
**Redfin Estimate is available in the following 35 metro areas: Atlanta, GA; Austin, TX; Baltimore, MD; Bend, OR; Boston, MA; Boulder, CO; The Bronx, NY; Charlotte, NC; Chicago, IL; Denver, CO; Greensboro, NC; Hampton Roads, VA; Houston, TX; Hudson Valley, NY; Inland Empire, CA; Las Vegas, NV; Long Island, NY; Los Angeles, CA; Miami, FL; Orange County, CA; Philadelphia, PA; Phoenix, AZ; Portland, OR; Queens, NY; Raleigh, NC; Reno, NV; Sacramento, CA; San Antonio, TX; San Diego, CA; San Francisco, CA; San Jose, CA; Seattle, WA; Staten Island, NY; Washington, DC; Winston-Salem, NC
For a full list of the states and counties covered by Redfin Estimate, see https://www.redfin.com/redfin-estimate
About Redfin
Redfin (www.redfin.com) is a next-generation real estate brokerage that represents people buying and selling homes. Founded by technologists, Redfin employs a team of experienced, full-service real estate agents who are advocates, not salespeople, earning customer-satisfaction bonuses, not just commissions. Redfin.com features all the broker-listed homes for sale, as well as for-sale-by-owner properties that don’t pay brokers a commission. Redfin also offers online tools, built by its own software engineers, that make the entire process of buying or selling a home easier and more fun. The company serves major markets across the U.S. and has closed nearly $20 billion in home sales. In 2012, Redfin was named one of The DIGITAL 100: World’s Most Valuable Private Tech Companies by Business Insider.
