Slashdot Mirror

Not really.

because having tax values online makes it easier to buy a house. I'm in the market for a house in north-central WV and I've tried to use http://www.zillow.com/ to compare the assessed value of a house with the list price to be an informed buyer. The data isn't always accurate or it can be missing. Publishing these maps may not help the situation but it shouldn't hurt it either.

I think the Supremes ruled that when a computer looks at data, it cannot be spying: spying is when a human looks at data. Sadly the damages the government suffers from spying--that is, from having a human look at data you'd rather have hidden--is that without a warrant they can't use it in court, and if they embarrass you then you can sue for damages.

Reality is, however, there is a hell of a lot of private data floating out there that is being handled by lots and lots of strangers--things that we'd like to pretend are secret but are really not. The most fascinating part about all of these complaints about the NSA spying on us is that they show just how public our private data really is. While we may use the NSA as the boogyman in all of this, there is plenty of information that I'd rather have private (such as how much I paid last year in property taxes on my house) which can be found for free on web sites such as Zillow.com.

Many people don't realize that the deeds to their property is public property, and a sufficiently nosy neighbor could have always went down to the town hall/court and looked up what everyone on their block paid for their house (this is usually listed on the deed).

Or they could just go here.

In my immediate neighbourhood (a couple of blocks in each direction) prices vary from $600,000 to about $2,000,000 so this exercise works for me. (At least according to zillow.)

http://zillow.com/

It's teh same aerial/sat pix as Google Earth. Feh.

A better picture of your home than on Google Earth can usually be found on http://www.zillow.com/ and most cities are running around trying to get every piece of property on some type of geospatial system, so why care?

Ever hear of Zillow, the real estate "estimator"? They already have detailed pictures of homes in many major U.S. cities, from four different angles (taken by plane, natch). These aerial shots, of course, blow sat images away when it comes to level of detail.

Zillow claims it has 50,000 sqft, 8 bedrooms and 1???? bathroom. If you put put the parcel ID 9208900079 into the King County Tax Assessor's page, they claim it has two buildings, one with 48160 sqft, 7 bedrooms, and 18.75 bathroms, and the other with 1890 sqft, 1 br, 1 bath. Choose whomever you with to believe.

I see $$$! http://www.zillow.com/search/Search.z?addrstrthood =173+Paderewski+Drive&citystatezip=buffalo%2C+ny&m ode=search

And zillow gets /.ed

I've tried Google Maps looking at where I live. I prefer http://www.zillow.com/ which is tens of times better in resolution.

It seems it only shows houses that are for sale:

http://www.zillow.com/search/Search.z?addrstrthood =1600+pennsylvania+av&citystatezip=washington+dc&m ode=search

Well I tried http://www.zillow.com/ but it appears it only works if you live in the United States. I guess I'm stuck with Google Maps since I live in Canada.

I've tried Google Maps looking at where I live. I prefer http://www.zillow.com/ which is tens of times better in resolution.


Real useful if you're going outside of Canada eh?

I've tried Google Maps looking at where I live. I prefer http://www.zillow.com/ which is tens of times better in resolution.

(This isn't an aim at advertising. It's just my opinion because I tried the rest.)