McLEAN, Va. -

Citing historical trends, NADA Used Car Guide points out that November saw an easing in used-vehicle depreciation, staying the course for the typical seasonal pattern of the industry. November’s depreciation – 1.9 percent – was noticeably lower than October’s 2.7-percent drop.

In the December edition of Guidelines, NADA UCG’s seasonally adjusted used-vehicle price index rose 1 percent compared to last month, to 123.8. Year-to-date, the index falls just 0.2 percent shy of the index’s all-time high averaged last year.

"It's normal for used-vehicle depreciation to slow during the end of the year,” Jonathan Banks, NADA UCG’s executive analyst, said in the analysis. “That said, while the slow is normal for the month, it was steeper than last November's 1-percent slide."

Diving a bit deeper, compact cars saw the biggest hit last month, falling by an industry high 2.7 percent in November, continuing its trend of dropping roughly 3 percent each month for the last seven.

While depreciation for the industry, as a whole, stood at 13.2 percent YTD at the end of November (compared to 12.7 percent for 2014), let’s take a look at all of the segments’ price drops last month, according to NADA UCG:

Change in Wholesale Used-Vehicle Prices – Oct. vs. Nov. 2015
Segment Price Drop Percentage (all values negative)
Compact Car (2.7)
Large Car

(2.3)
Subcompact Car (2.1)
Luxury Mid-Size Car (2.1)
Luxury Compact Car (2.0)
Industry Average (1.9)
Mid-Size Van (1.9)
Luxury Mid-Size Utility (1.7)
Luxury Compact Utility (1.6)
Large Pickup (1.6)
Mid-Size Utility (1.6)
Compact Utility (1.4)
Mid-Size Car (1.4)
Mid-Size Pickup (1.1)
Luxury Large Car (1.1)
Large SUV (0.8)

Year-to-date auction volume, by the end of November, stood at 3.83 million units, up 4 percent compared to the same period last year.

Looking forward, NADA UCG predicts that the prices for used vehicles aged zero to 8 years will fall roughly 1 percent in December compared to November. Zooming in to the segment level, the organization also predicts that subcompact and compact cars will drop by 1 percent, more than any other mainstream segment, while both luxury cars and utilities are expected to lose 1 to 1.5 percent in December.

January prices are expected to remain flat before increasing approximately 0.5 percent in February.