At ABA TechShow, Carole Levitt and Mark Rosch of Internet for Lawyers pointed me to Zillow.com, a real estate site launched in February that provides free valuations and other information on more than 40 million homes in the United States. It includes most U.S. homes, not just those for sale.

The site’s valuations, or “Zestimates,” is an estimated market value computed using comparable sales and other data points. In addition to valuations, the site offers a variety of useful information, including historical value changes charted over the past year, five years or 10 years; historical value changes as compared to surrounding zip code, city, state or the entire U.S.; all comparable home sales in an area; satellite, aerial and parcel views of many homes; and individual home data, such as number of bedrooms/bathrooms, square footage, lot size, stories and year built. The site’s My Zestimator tool allows users to refine the listed value of a home, based on changes or additions to the home.

In addition to standard satellite images, Zillow uses the Bird’s Eye View images of Microsoft Virtual Earth, providing multiple perspectives and amazing detail.

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Bob is a lawyer, veteran legal journalist, and award-winning blogger and podcaster. In 2011, he was named to the inaugural Fastcase 50, honoring “the law’s smartest, most courageous innovators, techies, visionaries and leaders.” Earlier in his career, he was editor-in-chief of several legal publications, including The National Law Journal, and editorial director of ALM’s Litigation Services Division.