I stumbled upon this "nifty" tool on the FHA web site. It has a calculator that uses average appreciation/depreciation of a market place (either by state or by Metropolitan Statistical Area) to guesstimate what your home would be worth now.
You need to know when your house was purchased, what you paid, and where your home is located.
Since I own a property in Loudoun County, and we're "technically" part of the Washington DC Metropolitan Statistical area, I ran mine a couple of times.
- First I indicated my property was in the Washington DC MSA... the value projected for today was way too high, but the value it says my home had when I last had it appraised (2005) was actually low compared to the appraisal.
- Then I indicated my home was in Virginia. Today's estimated value was still a little high, but it was relatively close. When I look at its estimated value in 2005 when I had that appraisal done, it was very, very low comparatively.
OK, well... maybe it's not a great tool for projecting the value of your home - no automated valuation system is, especially when it's this broad. But, I still found it to be pretty neat. Check it out:
If you'd like to take a look at an automated report that will provide you with accurate and specific data, order a market snapshot. It will show you the homes in your neighborhood that are for sale or that have actually sold. From this you can estimate the value of your home better than FHA's House Price Calculator. Get that report at:
Vicky Chrisner
703-669-3142
