Detroit used car prices show signs of leveling out
Automotive analysts say the cost for a used vehicle is beginning to stabilize, but at higher price points than before.
Shoppers in metro Detroit looking to purchase a used car hope to find some relief from record high prices.
Used car prices in Detroit were up by 5.6 percent in the month of July. That’s lower than the national average, which saw used vehicle prices rise by nearly 11 percent over the same period.
Karl Brauer, an executive analyst for automotive website ISeeCars.com, says July’s nationwide increase is roughly the same as June’s.
“We’re seeing this stabilization,” Brauer says. “They aren’t up by 20-30 percent, which we saw a lot in the past 18 months. They’re now up just a little bit.”
Brauer says while the prices are beginning to level, the stabilization is coming at higher price points. That’s because used vehicles are still in high demand.
Listen: Used car prices show signs of stabilizing.
With a surplus of cars and trucks waiting for microchips, new cars are getting on to dealer lots at slower rates. In turn, fewer used vehicles are entering the resale market.
“The backlog is far from caught up, and I don’t think there’s any near-term expectation for getting caught up,” Brauer shares.
Brauer expects the bottleneck of products that need semiconductors to gradually reduce over the next six months. He says it wouldn’t be impossible to see microchip demand leveling out next year.
Photo Credit: Alex McLenon, WDET
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