Much like the new-car market, retail demand was stronger than expected for used cars in January, according to the latest CarGurus Intelligence Report.

But unlike the new-vehicle segment, prices on pre-owned eased last month.

So don’t be surprised to see some consumers steer towards used cars instead, the compamy said.

With listing prices just over $29,000 last month, used-car prices remain nearly 41% higher than pre-COVID levels, CarGurus said, but were down 1.7% from December and have fallen 7.6% from January 2022.

“With new prices remaining stubbornly elevated, we could see a shift of cost-conscious consumers moving from new to used,” CarGurus director of industry analytics Kevin Roberts said in the report’s synopsis.

New-car listing prices were up 0.8% month-over-month, 8.7% year-over-year and remain 31.4% higher than pre-COVID levels, according to CarGurus.

New-car demand fell 9.3% from December and was down 20.7% from pre-COVID levels, but climbed 5.7% year-over-year.

For used, demand was up 5.7% month-over-month and beat January 2022 by 5%, CarGurus said. Compared to pre-COVID levels, demand was off just 1.1%.

“With prices declining, we’re potentially seeing more buyers come back to the used market,” the company said in the report.

That said, there could be a potential uptick come tax season, CarGurus explained. “Average listing prices for used vehicles saw a further decline in January, although the slowing in rate could portend a seasonal increase for tax season,” they said.

As for the most recent six months, though, prices appear to be falling in every model-year class dating back to at least 2005 (the earliest year in the CarGurus chart). That’s especially true for late-model used vehicles, which CarGurus says have had the lion’s share of price drops.

For example, prices of model-year 2021 used cars fell 20% from July to January. Model-year 2020 and 2022 pre-owned saw more than 15% declines in price during the same period, the data shows.

Prices on model-year 2012 through 2019 vehicles were each down between 10% and 15%, according to CarGurus.