The hurricanes that hit the Southeast this autumn drove a sequential decline in wholesale auction sales last month, but October volumes were still up double-digits year-over-year, as are year-to-date auction sales through 10 months.

That’s according to the latest AuctionNet data from the National Auto Auction Association.

There were 621,507 wholesale unit sales in October, up 11.6% year-over-year when adjusted for two more selling days this year, according to the data.

That pushed the year-to-date tally to 5.73 million, which beats year-ago figures by 10%.

That said, there was a 1.6% month-over-month decline in wholesale sales during October, NAAA said.

What’s more the, the Southeast region — where hurricanes Helene and Milton had the most impact — had a 7.7% decline in volume from September.

Adding some context, Larry Dixon, who is NAAA’s vice president of Auction Data Solutions/AuctionNet, said in the analysis: “Note that auction sales in Florida, Georgia, and North Carolina were equal to if not slightly higher over the second half of October than they were in the lead up to Hurricane Helene at the end of September (indicating that deferred sales were made up over the back half of October).”

Breaking it down by consignor type, dealer sales rose 6.9% year-over-year in October, while commercial sales jumped 18.4%.

“October’s commercial sales growth rate was a bit higher than what was recorded in the two months prior but was well below what was observed over the first half of the year,” Dixon said.

Note: This is part of a monthly series in which Auto Remarketing shares AuctionNet data and commentary provided by the National Auto Auction Association.

As noted by the organization, more than 260 NAAA member auctions power AuctionNet, making it the most comprehensive source of wholesale auto auction sales data in the U.S. Unless otherwise noted, auction sales figures are based on total reporting auctions, the number and composition of which may vary over time. 

AuctionNet® Wholesale Auction Results
October-24
Total Unit Sales
Oct-23 Oct-24 % Change (selling day adjusted)
Overall Market 510,475 621,507 11.6%
Compact Car 56,618 60,844 -1.5%
Compact Crossover/SUV 72,245 89,502 13.6%
Compact Luxury Crossover/SUV 10,363 14,983 32.5%
Full-Size Pickup 62,294 79,901 17.6%
Luxury Car 28,136 33,885 10.4%
Mid-Size Car 63,941 70,992 1.8%
Mid-Size Crossover/SUV 72,976 95,655 20.2%
Mid-Size Luxury Crossover/SUV 17,572 22,726 18.6%
Electric Vehicles 6,396 10,521 50.8%

Charts/data courtesy of NAAA/AuctionNet