How Are Home Values Calculated?

Apr 12, 2018 | Satsuma News Team

Comparative Market Analyses Use Recent New Orleans Real Estate Data

Lenders and real estate websites offer online automated valuation methods that can be a starting point for estimating your home’s value, but consulting with an experienced NOLA Realtor can provide valuable insight into pricing a home competitively to ensure you get the best price for your property.

Learn what factors determine the list price of your New Orleans house.

The current median value of a home in New Orleans is $173,100. The median listing price is $309,200, with an average selling price of $221,700. But what does all this have to do with your home?

If you’re preparing to sell your New Orleans house, you might be wondering what your home is worth. The short answer: whatever someone is willing to pay for it.

The style of the home you’re selling, the size of your lot, the condition of your home, and, of course, location are all critical elements in determining the value of a property.

There are a variety of resources you can use to come up with an educated guess regarding your home’s value.

Online Home Value Estimators

There are a number of online automated valuation models, or AVMs, that are usually offered by lenders or real estate websites. These tools use public records (property transfers, deeds of ownership, and tax assessments) combined with mathematical formulas to predict a home’s value, based mostly upon recent sales and listings in the area.

Most AVM sites are used for marketing and lead-generation purposes, and don’t always provide accurate home values. But the AVMs used by lenders and real estate professionals use a confidence score to denote how close the AVM provider thinks the estimate is to actual market value. For example, a confidence score of 85 percent means that the estimate is within 15 percent of actual market value.

FHFA House Price Index Calculator

The Federal Housing Financing Agency (FHFA) provides a house price index (HPI) calculator that applies a more scientific approach to determining market value than a VMA does. The HPI tool uses the “repeat sales method,” analyzing sales data gathered since the 1970s to track a home’s change in value from one transaction to the next, using this information to estimate how values change in a given market. The HPI calculator will allow you to view how your much home may have appreciated over time, but isn’t adjusted seasonally or for inflation.

A Professional Appraisal

Banks and lending institutions typically require an appraisal before they will lend money, but a property owner can also hire a professional appraiser to estimate the home’s value. Appraisers will evaluate the region, city, and neighborhood, characteristics of the property, as well as the listings and sales of comparable houses within the same market.

Comparing Similar Properties With Your New Orleans Realtor

Pulling “comps,” or comparable properties, is one way to determine market value without hiring an appraiser, but you’ll need to use an “apples to apples” approach by comparing at least three properties that are similar to yours in size, location, condition, and upgrades.

At Satsuma Realtors, we provide our clients with comparative market analyses (CMA). A CMA will analyze the details of recent sales in your neighborhood and combine this with information on the supply of homes currently for sale in New Orleans, taking into consideration the current climate of the local real estate market.

Wondering what the market value of your New Orleans home might be? Contact a Satsuma Realtor for valuable insight into pricing a home competitively and ensure you get the best price for your property.

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