Not necessarily. Two Nutley homes can be worth almost exactly the same amount — one selling well over list, the other at or near it — and the difference isn’t value. It’s how each one was priced going in. This is a pattern worth understanding, not a market-wide law.
Percent over asking is not appreciation, and it is not a standalone measure of value. It is a readout of list-price strategy. A home can sell 15% over list and be priced correctly for the market, or sell at exactly list price and be priced correctly for the market — the percentage tells you how the list price was set, not what the house is worth.
The homes that close fastest and furthest over list are, as a rule, the ones priced below indicated market value on purpose. Homes priced at market tell a quieter story — they still sell, often at or slightly above list, but they take longer, because there is no artificial scarcity built into the number.
A buyer who sees "112% of list" on a comp and assumes the market is red-hot everywhere may be reading a single seller's pricing strategy, not a market-wide signal. A seller who wants a bidding war has to actually underprice to get one — pricing at your true expected value and hoping for a premium anyway is a different, lower-probability bet.
It helps to keep three different numbers apart. The asking price is a marketing decision. Market value is what recent comparable sales say the home is actually worth. Appraised value is a lender's own opinion, used for financing. A home can sell well over its asking price and still land right at market value — which is why the comparable evidence, not the percentage over asking, is what tells you whether anyone overpaid. And if an appraisal later comes in below the agreed price, that's a separate financing question — about the loan, not about whether the number was fair.
A different Nutley listing did the opposite on purpose. It was priced at the low end of a widened comp band, with no sign of an intentional squeeze. It was positioned near indicated market value, without manufactured urgency — proof that in the same active market, not every listing is built to invite a bidding war, and reading one that way can cost a buyer real money.
An overpriced listing can also sell under list after multiple cuts and still be, at that final number, a fair deal — the history doesn't change what the house is worth today, even though it changes how buyers read it (a separate question, about how buyers read a listing's history rather than what it is worth now).
Sellers: a preliminary range is realistic before we meet — the actual pricing recommendation follows a walkthrough. Buyers: bring me the listing and I'll tell you whether it's underpriced, at market, or something else, before we build a full offer strategy.