As we noted Apr. 16, the Arizona State Board of Appraisal has sent a letter to Zillow.com demanding that it cease and desist from offering its free online estimates of property values in the state, on the grounds that Arizona law prohibits the unlicensed offering of real estate appraisals. Eugene Volokh (Apr. 30) believes that as interpreted by the regulatory board, at least, the Arizona statute is probably “constitutionally overbroad”. Notes commenter Duffy Pratt: “I don’t think Zillow is doing an ‘appraisal’ anymore than I am practicing law by saying this statute is hooey.” Legislation is moving forward in the Arizona legislature that would provide clearer authorization for services like Zillow to operate (John Cook’s Venture Blog (Seattle Post-Intelligencer), Apr. 30; “Arizona House passes bill impacting ‘Zestimates'” Inman News, May 1). More: Greg Swann, BloodhoundBlog, Apr. 29 and other posts; Jonathan Lansner, “Arizona has a Zillow problem”, Orange County Register, Apr. 18.
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