, the shortlist info—the number of people who have hit the heart icon—serves this purpose," explains Nie.To collect their data, the researchers split the U.S. into four regions and identified the smallest, median and largest metros from each. They then randomly selected five houses listed for sale on Zillow in June 2016 from each zip code. Some metros had multiple zip codes.
They looked at the listings again in September 2016 to see which had sold and collected the official sale prices. The researchers also analyzed each property's tax history and ratings for the seller real estate agents and nearby schools. House hunters may anchor their expectation around the listed price on Zillow, even though the actual value is higher or lower, he explains. Nie recommends checking multiple websites and asking a real estate agent how much a particular house is worth.