The timeframe for data included in the newest Market Insights from Black Book coincided with the first day of October. That week also included Hurricane Ian smashing into Florida before drenching the Carolinas and other parts of the East Coast.

With the resulting flooding likely destroying an undetermined number of vehicles, Black Book’s analysts are keeping watch of the wholesale market, which saw values drop another 0.77%.

Black Book also mentioned that the estimated average weekly sales rate dropped to 55% last week.

“Given the circumstances of Hurricane Ian making landfall last week, and some auction locations temporarily closing, the overall sales rates were lower than prior weeks,” analysts said in the report. “Buyer count was still strong and there were competitive bids, but the sellers were still holding onto their floors in hopes that the market will move into positive territory. With inventory being down last week, this might be why sellers are holding tight to their floors because of the law of supply and demand.

“Large independent dealers and small franchise dealers dominated the lanes last week and were aggressive in casting their bids going back and forth,” Black Book continued. “Conditions of these vehicles were not as great as we have seen in the past, and we can hypothesize that conditions might stay the same or get worse as we anticipate seeing some flood vehicles running through the lanes as an effect of the hurricane.”

When dealers head to the lanes or grab their devices to find inventory, they’ll be seeing wholesale prices still on a downward trajectory, but not quite at the rate Black Book has reported for the past few weeks.

On a volume-weighted basis, Black Book reported overall car segment prices decreased 0.80%, with all nine car segments softening again last week.

Analysts indicated prices for midsize cars led the declines by dropping 1.01%, followed by prestige luxury cars (down 1.00%) and sporty cars (down 0.96%).

Perhaps portending to what might happen as more hurricane ramifications surface, Black Book pointed out that sub-compact cars posted the smallest value decline last week, dropping only 0.39%. During the previous three weeks, analysts said the price decrease for those gas-sippers was 0.60%.

Sliding over to the truck department, Black Book said overall truck values on a volume-weighted basis dropped by 0.75%, with 12 of the 13 segments moving lower.

Pacing the truck declines were sub-compact luxury crossovers (down 1.34%) and compact luxury crossovers (down 1.19%).