Weekly wholesale vehicle price declines are outpacing pre-pandemic norms. However, the depreciation for the week ending June 15 wasn’t nearly as steep as the prior week’s, according to the latest Market Insights from Black Book.

What could this mean?

“The slowing of depreciation this week suggests a stabilizing market,” Black Book said in the report.

Overall wholesale prices fell 0.55% last week, compared to a 0.71% drop the week before. The average for the same week in 2017-2019 was a decrease of 0.27%, Black Book said.

Car values fell 0.58%, following a 0.76% drop the prior week. During 2017-2019, the average change was a 0.35% decline.

Truck/SUV values dropped 0.54% after a 0.69% decline the week ending June 8, the data shows. The 2017-2019 average was decrease of 0.22%.

Last week’s average auction sales rate came in at 56%, which was an increase of 1% week-over-week, Black Book said.

Separately, Cox Automotive released the mid-month Manheim Used Vehicle Value Index on Tuesday. When adjusting for mix, mileage and seasonality, the index for the first half of June was down 0.3% from May and fell 8.5% from the full month of June 2023, Cox said.

Unadjusted, the mid-month Manheim index fell 1.6% month-over-month and 9.5% year-over-year.

“May ended with stronger than normal price declines in the last few weeks, and that’s continued into early June,” Cox Automotive senior director of economic and insights Jeremy Robb said in a Data Point report. “We are still seeing higher sales conversion levels with days’ supply down as sales have continued to run above last year’s levels.”