Median housing prices have been consistently rising [0] since Zillow started their property buying program in 2018. In their most recent earnings report, Zillow announced $422M in Q3 losses from their home buying program and expects $240M to $265M in losses for homes they plan to buy in Q4 [1]. Rising sale prices coupled with big losses implies Zillow has been systematically paying above-market rates for homes, and there's a lot of evidence corroborating that hypothesis [2]. Maybe we're near a peak in home prices, but prices haven't started falling yet, and if Zillow was paying market rates, they wouldn't be losing money yet.
[0] https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MSPUS
[1] https://investors.zillowgroup.com/investors/news-and-events/...
[2] https://fortune.com/2021/11/03/zillow-house-flipping-overpai...