The average used car in America sold for $27,156 in November. That’s $408 less than October’s figure — a drop of 1.5% in a month.
Further decreases are likely ahead. The wholesale prices dealers pay for used cars have fallen more than 14% over the last year.
The news comes even as the average new car price hit a record high last month.
Supply Holding Steady
The nationwide supply of used cars has stabilized after shortages through the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. “Since June, inventory has been relatively stable, though there have been slight declines starting in October,” says Quentin Wallace, Cox Automotive research manager. “While we were expecting an increase in used inventory to end the year like prior years, that hasn’t occurred yet, and we might see even lower levels into December.”
(Cox Automotive is Kelley Blue Book’s parent company.)
Car dealers measure their supply by days of inventory or how long it would take them to sell out of cars at today’s sales rate if they couldn’t acquire more. The total days of supply at the end of November stood at 52, which is 17% above year-ago levels. October ended with a revised 53 days’ worth of supply.
Sales Always Slow in December
Meanwhile, sales have slowed down slightly, though less than usual, as the year’s end approaches. “Despite the slowdown in recent weeks, we continue to see abnormally strong used-vehicle sales for this time of year,” Wallace says. “Traditionally, the end of the year sees much softer used-vehicle sales activity.”
As has been true all year, the least-expensive used cars remain the hardest to find. The days’ supply for vehicles under $10,000 is 34. At the opposite end of the spectrum, the days’ supply for vehicles over $35,000 is 61.
Acura, Honda, Lexus, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Subaru, Toyota, and Volkswagen dealers have the lowest average days’ supply of used vehicles (of any brand) at 50 or lower.
