homeType and yearBuilt

homeType is Zillow's property type code, and yearBuilt the year the home was built, as the listing states it.

What it means

homeType is a code such as SINGLE_FAMILY, CONDO, TOWNHOUSE, MULTI_FAMILY, APARTMENT, LOT or MANUFACTURED. An apartment building link comes back as APARTMENT, and land as LOT. Branch on the code, not on the description.

Many other fields depend on the type. A LOT has no bedrooms or living area, a CONDO usually has an HOA fee and no lot, and an APARTMENT link describes one unit of the building in price, beds and baths.

yearBuilt is a four-digit year. New construction can show the current year or a future one while the home is being built. Recorded multi-family homes in Cleveland went back to the late nineteenth century.

Recorded example

{
  "homeType": "TOWNHOUSE",
  "statusText": "New construction",
  "yearBuilt": 2026
}

{
  "homeType": "MULTI_FAMILY",
  "yearBuilt": 1895
}

{
  "homeType": "APARTMENT",
  "yearBuilt": null
}

Values are copied from recorded lookups of public Zillow pages, with the other fields of data left out. They show the shape and typical values, not today's data for these homes.

When it is null

• yearBuilt is null for land, for apartment building rentals in our recorded lookups, and whenever the page doesn't state a year. A year of zero on the source counts as unknown.
• homeType was present on every recorded lookup, but code for null anyway.

Read it in code

Send a Zillow link, a zpid or an address to GET /v1/zillow/property with your key in the x-api-key header, then read the field from data:

curl -sG "https://api.propertiesapi.com/v1/zillow/property" \
  -H "x-api-key: $PROPERTIESAPI_KEY" \
  --data-urlencode "url=https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1704-Shelbourne-Dr-Austin-TX-78752/29412761_zpid/" \
  | jq '.data | {homeType, yearBuilt}'

import os
import requests

r = requests.get(
    "https://api.propertiesapi.com/v1/zillow/property",
    params={"url": "https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1704-Shelbourne-Dr-Austin-TX-78752/29412761_zpid/"},
    headers={"x-api-key": os.environ["PROPERTIESAPI_KEY"]},
    timeout=120,
)
r.raise_for_status()
home = r.json()["data"]
from datetime import date
kind, built = home["homeType"], home["yearBuilt"]
age = None if built is None else date.today().year - built
print(kind, built, age)

const url = "https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1704-Shelbourne-Dr-Austin-TX-78752/29412761_zpid/";
const res = await fetch(
  `https://api.propertiesapi.com/v1/zillow/property?url=${encodeURIComponent(url)}`,
  { headers: { "x-api-key": process.env.PROPERTIESAPI_KEY } },
);
if (!res.ok) throw new Error(`HTTP ${res.status}`);
const { data: home } = await res.json();
const { homeType, yearBuilt } = home;
const age = yearBuilt == null ? null : new Date().getFullYear() - yearBuilt;
console.log(homeType, yearBuilt, age);

Common mistakes

• Treating MULTI_FAMILY as an apartment complex. It is a building with a few homes sold as one property; a recorded Cleveland listing was a duplex.
• Computing age from yearBuilt without a null check, which gives a home built in year zero.
• Expecting a closed list. Zillow can add codes; keep unknown values instead of failing.

Related

• beds and baths
• livingArea and lotSize
• monthlyHoaFee
• Every field of the property endpoint
• Guide: Choosing a Real Estate Data API: Coverage, Freshness, and Cost
• All response fields

Zillow is a trademark of Zillow, Inc. PropertiesAPI is an independent service and is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Zillow.