Cape Hatteras National Seashore/National Park Service
- A Twitter video captured the moment a beach house in North Carolina collapsed into the ocean.
- Even after the home collapsed, the property had a ZIllow Zestimate valuation of $381,200.
- This comes as there are growing doubts about the accuracy of Zillow’s home valuation feature called the Zestimate.
A video circulating on Twitter captured the dramatic moment powerful ocean waves swept a North Carolina beach house into the ocean.
In the video, the base of the house’s stilts can be seen partially submerged in the water as strong tides continue to pummel the structure. Within seconds of being filmed, the stilts give way, and the house falls into the ocean, bobbing up and down with the tide.
The house was located along the coast in Outer Banks, Rodanthe, and was unoccupied at the point of collapse, US National Park Service officials at Cape Hatteras said.
—Cape Hatteras National Seashore (@CapeHatterasNPS) May 10, 2022
The video, uploaded by the Cape Hatteras National Seashore’s official Twitter account, has over 10 million views.
—Andy Horowitz (@andydhorowitz) May 10, 2022
Perhaps beachfront houses aren’t as great as they seem.
—Warren Commission Test Skull (@conzmoleman) May 10, 2022
Twitter users are also expressing outrage that such homes are allowed to be sold given the safety and environmental risks they face.
—moon cake candy flipping (@br0k3nhalos) May 10, 2022
A now-deleted Zillow listing, accessed by Insider via the Wayback Machine, says the home last sold in November 2020 for $275,000, though Zillow gave it a Zestimate of $381,200. The listing has since been taken down.
—Rebecca Hersher (@rhersher) May 10, 2022
Zillow has drawn flak in the past year over its property valuation figures, Insider’s Taylor Borden reported in 2021.
Known as Zestimates, the home valuations are based on a mix of public and listing service data, along with user-submitted information. Zestimates have been a key feature of the company’s website since 2006, but there are growing doubts about their accuracy after reports emerged that Zestimates can be manipulated to show an inflated value.
The Ocean Drive home was the second oceanfront Rodanthe home to collapse this week. However, this has been an ongoing concern since as early as 2020.
After another similar incident in February that left debris all along the coast, a meeting hosted by the National Park Service and county officials noted that 11 other homes in the area are at risk of the same fate.
Erosion is the main reason why these houses are falling. Between 1998 to 2019, the beach eroded by 282 feet along the area where the homes collapsed, Michael Flynn, a physical scientist with the Cape Hatteras National Seashore, told WTKR News 3.
Officials are also encouraging and working with homeowners who are at risk to relocate or remove the homes before further incidents occur.
“We proactively reached out to homeowners along Ocean Drive in Rodanthe after the first house collapse and recommended that actions be taken to prevent collapse and impacts to Cape Hatteras National Seashore,” David Hallac, a superintendent at National Parks of Eastern North Carolina, said in a statement released on May 10.
Cape Hatteras National Seashore and Zillow did not immediately respond to Insider’s requests for comment.
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