June showed “more precipitous” declines in wholesale vehicle prices than May, and that drop-off has not let up so far this month, says ADESA chief economist Tom Kontos in his latest monthly report.

Citing data from ADESA US Analytical Services, the Kontos Kommentary report released Friday said average wholesale vehicle values in June were at $15,181. That’s down 5.8% from May and off 12.3% from June 2022, though still up 32.9% from pre-pandemic levels.

The slowdown continued in the first half of July, as average wholesale prices were at $14,469 for the week ending July 16, Kontos said.

In the report, Kontos also noted that in addition to the overall declines in used-car prices, values on late-model cars have also dropped.

After falling to $25,741 in June, their values for the week of July 16 came in at $25,157.

Sharing some overall context in the summary of the report, Kontos said: “Average wholesale used vehicle prices fell significantly in June and those declines continued into July.

“Combined with May’s declines, average wholesale prices are now about $2,000 below their April peaks,” he said.

In a similar analysis, Black Book said wholesale prices for the week of July 15 were down 0.73% from the prior week, which was the steepest weekly drop in six months.

That compared to a 0.47% decline for the week ending July 8 and a 0.33% decline for the average mid-July week of 2017-2019.

“Halfway through July and prices continue to drop in all segments. Sellers are starting to loosen up their floors on all segments,” Black Book said in the report. “As we saw (the prior week), buyers were more willing to purchase, but still exercised caution as they looked for ‘good deals.’ With the lower floors, the sales rate finally showed a small improvement.”

For analysis on wholesale price trends, check out Cherokee Media Group senior editor Nick Zulovich’s podcast conversation with Kontos.