Redwood City CA Real Estate And Homes

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Zestimate – Zillow Lost $304,000,000

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In 2018 Zillow announced “Zillow Offers” which gave home sellers an opportunity to sell their home directly to Zillow without listing their home for sale on an MLS. With the Covid-19 pandemic leading to restrictions on holding open houses it would seem that 2021 would be a great opportunity for the program. Zillow would use its Zestimate to begin the offer price and use an in-person visit to adjust for the cost of needed repairs.

Zillow’s Nov 2, 2021 earnings report and discussions indicate 2021 was not a great opportunity. The company posted a $304 million inventory write down in its third quarter and said that the total write down would be more than $540 million. Zillow will shut down its Zillow Offers division, leading to a 25% reduction in employees.

One of the eye-opening statements made in the company’s shareholder letter written by CEO, Rich Barton, and chief financial officer, Allen Parker, was “Our aim was to become a market maker, not a market risk taker.” The Zestimate apparently did not give them adequate short term future prices.

Does “market maker” bring up comparisons to the Hunt brothers effort in 1979 to become a market maker for silver which drove up the price of silver from $6 per ounce in early 1979 to $50 per ounce in January 1980?

Read more at Zillow Zestimate.

Redwood City Apartment Building Prices Continue to Climb

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Although large real estate investor/developer purchases don’t closely match individual homeowner purchases, the prices eventually track each other. The recent purchase of a luxury apartment complex in Redwood City called the Encore set a new high record price-per-unit of $816,666.

Large investors are still seeing increasing values for apartments in Silicon Valley. View Redwood City real estate trends for houses, townhouses, and condos.

Previous apartment complex sales have been:

  • November 2019, $814,285 per-unit for 175 units, sold by Greystar.
  • June 2019, $810,000 per-unit for 402 units, sold by Paul’s Corporation and Fortress Investment Group.
  • June 2016, $700,000 per-unit for 305 units, sold by Greystar Franklin.
  • March 2015, $595,744 per-unit for 141 units, sold by SummerHill Apartment Communities.
  • May 2014, $628,787 per-unit for 132 units, sold by Sares Regis.