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1Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors2Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute3Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsThe Seventh Circuit affirmed dismissal of Illinois homeowners’ lawsuit over Zillow’s Zestimates in Patel v. Zillow, Inc., No. 18-2130, on February 8, 2019. It did not decide what the plaintiffs’ homes were worth or declare Zestimates accurate. The ruling turned on the legal claims and arguments before the court.
What did the appeals court decide?
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit affirmed dismissal of the homeowners’ claims. The plaintiffs alleged that Zestimates undervalued their properties, were difficult to change or remove, and could make homes harder to sell. Their case involved claims under the Illinois Real Estate Appraiser Licensing Act and the Illinois Uniform Deceptive Trade Practices Act, along with a consumer-fraud claim addressed in the district-court proceedings. The Seventh Circuit opinion describes the appeal and its disposition.
The decision was about whether the claims as presented could proceed—not about whether any individual Zestimate was correct. It did not establish that Zillow’s estimates are accurate generally, nor did it determine the market value of any plaintiff’s home.
Why did the homeowners’ claims fail?
The licensing claim
The Seventh Circuit concluded that the Illinois licensing statute did not give these plaintiffs a private right of action. Because that was enough to resolve the licensing claim, the panel did not need to decide the district court’s separate conclusion that an automated valuation model differs from an appraisal.
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The trade-practices claim
For the theory before it, the court treated a Zestimate labeled as an opinion as an opinion rather than an actionable factual statement. Writing for the panel, Judge Frank H. Easterbrook quoted Illinois precedent: “The Act prohibits deception rather than error.” That distinction matters: an estimate that is wrong is not, by that fact alone, proof of deception under the claim the plaintiffs brought.
Requests to change or remove estimates
The court also rejected the idea that changing or removing individual estimates on request would necessarily make the overall distribution of an algorithm’s estimates more accurate. As the opinion put it, “In general, the accuracy of algorithmic estimates cannot be improved by plucking some numbers out of the distribution or ‘improving’ others in ways that depart from the algorithm’s output.”
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What does the opinion say a Zestimate measures?
The opinion describes Zillow’s system as a proprietary algorithm that used public information such as location, tax assessments, room counts, and nearby sale prices. Zillow did not inspect each home. As a result, the estimate could not directly account for a particular property’s condition, attractiveness, or maintenance. The opinion also recounts Zillow’s description of Zestimates as potentially inaccurate and as useful starting points, rather than definitive valuations.
This is a practical limitation of an estimate built without a property-specific inspection: details that affect a buyer’s view of a home may not be represented fully in the available data. A Zestimate can therefore be a useful reference point without settling what a home would sell for.
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What accuracy figures appeared in the court records?
The opinion recited Zillow’s statements that the median error was less than 6% and that estimates were off by more than 20% in about 15% of all sales. Those are historical figures attributed to Zillow in the 2019 appellate opinion, not independently verified current performance metrics.
A 2017 district-court opinion recounted older Zillow website figures: a national median error rate of 5.6%, and Chicago-area figures of 3.6% median error, 60.9% of estimates within 5% of sale price, 79.4% within 10%, and 90.4% within 20%. These are historical figures for the geography and period described in the district-court opinion. A median error and the share of estimates falling within an error band describe different things; neither set of figures should be read as a promise about a present-day estimate.
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How should a homeowner use the ruling?
The decision does not prevent a homeowner from questioning an estimate or mean that an estimate should substitute for a valuation tailored to a transaction. GeekWire reported that Zillow described a Zestimate as one data point to consider alongside recent sales and advice from real-estate professionals; that was contextual guidance in the news report, not a method required or endorsed by the court. Zillow’s statement after the ruling that the Zestimate was a valuable tool was the company’s characterization, not the court’s holding. See GeekWire’s report.
The ruling also says nothing about current estimate performance, current correction or removal procedures, or later treatment of the judgment. Its reach is narrower: it affirmed dismissal of these plaintiffs’ claims under the law and theories presented.
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