What is going on in Tempe, AZ?

[Jackie Van]

I have noticed in the past week some houses in Tempe, especially south of Tempe there has been a lot of houses asking for 100k more than zestimate. Can someone explain what's going on to me please?

[Ryan Swan]

The Zestimate has a lag time, meaning the algorithm has to take in recent sales data & home facts and then adjust up or down accordingly. You can imagine the massive amount of data it has to process nationwide, so the Zestimate can't possibly update in real time (only Zillow could tell you how quickly they update, but I imagine it takes at least 2-4 weeks to "catch up" to what the market is doing). 

I can tell you from my actual boots on the ground experience that everything in Tempe (and West Mesa) is getting multiple offers right now. I'm talking 10-12 offers in hand within 2 days of listing, and all offers are going to be above list price. Example: I finally won a deal for a repeat BP client after writing offers on at least 6 houses in Tempe. He was offering 10-15% above list price, putting 25% down, and had a full appraisal waiver and was still not the "best" offer on the table.