# Zillow wound down Zillow Offers, its algorithmic home-buying business, cutting about 25% of staff; its CEO wrote that unpredictability in forecasting home prices far exceeded expectations

Page: https://flyvolo.ai/en/changes/ev-20211102-real-estate-agent-1
Date: 2021-11-02 · Stage: Constraint
Can this record move a task judgement? yes
Occupation: https://flyvolo.ai/en/careers/real-estate-agent

## Scope

One US company taking balance-sheet risk on its own automated valuations, during an unusually volatile housing market and alongside stated renovation and resale capacity constraints. It says nothing about the accuracy of automated valuation as a tool, and nothing about whether agents price better — the company kept publishing estimates after closing the buying business. What it establishes is about who carries the consequence of a valuation, not who produces one.

## Source

- Zillow Group (Exhibit 99.1 to Form 8-K, SEC EDGAR) — https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1617640/000161764021000085/q32021991.htm (primary source)

## What this means

A company that ran a business on its own automated valuations judged that it could not carry the risk of buying homes on them. The estimate was never the scarce thing; standing behind it was.

## What it does not show yet

It does not establish that automated valuation is inaccurate, that agents value better, or that this would repeat in a calmer market. The company kept publishing estimates; it stopped buying on them.

## How to verify it yourself

Ask your own market: is any party buying homes on an algorithmic valuation today, and at what discount to the estimate. The size of that discount is the price of the uncertainty somebody has to carry.


More: https://flyvolo.ai/llms.txt