U.S. Cities With the Biggest Drop in Used Car Prices

Published June 22, 2020

U.S. Cities With the Biggest Drop in Used Car Prices

The uncertainty precipitated by COVID-19 has affected every sector of the economy, including the automotive industry. Car dealerships are experiencing sharp declines in used car sales, as much of the country still remains under lockdown. While used car sales have always been prone to fluctuations, data from the U.S. Census Bureau found that retail used car sales plummeted more than 20 percent year-over-year in March even before the full effects of stay-at-home orders were realized. The last time that used car sales fell so precipitously was at the onset of the Great Recession in 2008.

Line graph showing used car sales decreasing over 20% in March

Research from automotive research firm Manheim shows that in response to reduced demand, wholesale prices (what dealers pay to buy the used cars they sell) experienced a more than 11 percent drop in April. However, the drop in wholesale used car prices has not fully hit the retail market—at least not yet. According to analysis from CoPilot, which aggregates car listings data in real-time across 46,000 U.S. dealers, retail prices for pre-owned vehicles only fell 3.9 percent nationwide between January and May 2020.

Experts from Kelley Blue Book suggest that because car dealers have largely avoided purchasing new inventory in recent weeks, they aren’t in a rush to cut prices as a way to move their existing inventory. However, an analysis from MAX Digital predicts that a combination of record supply, damaged consumer confidence, and new car incentives will ultimately create a perfect storm causing retail prices to drop sharply in the coming weeks.

Despite only a slight drop in retail prices at the national level, some parts of the country are already experiencing steeper declines than others. Between January and May, individual U.S. states experienced price drops ranging from 1-5 percent. The states with the biggest drops include Utah, Delaware, and Florida, which all experienced decreases greater than 4.5 percent. By contrast, the states with the lowest drops include Hawaii, Wyoming, and Mississippi.

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Heatmap of U.S. showing used car price decreases by state

At a more granular level, certain metropolitan areas have also experienced faster declines in used car prices, representing good opportunities for buyers. To identify these locations, researchers from CoPilot, a car shopping app that helps guide users through the buying process, analyzed its proprietary dataset of more than 6 million auto listings in the United States and created a ranking based on each location’s change in average listing price between January and May 2020. To improve relevance, only metros with at least one million residents were included in the analysis.

Here are the top 25 major metros with the biggest drop in used car prices so far in 2020.