It was an unseasonably balmy February day in Atlanta on Tuesday.

Coincidentally, the respective monthly used-car value indices released by two companies headquartered in the area showed signs of warming in the wholesale vehicle market, even “hints” of spring.

While both Black Book’s Used Vehicle Retention Index and Cox Automotive’s Manheim Used Vehicle Value Index were down double-digit percentages from a year ago, each pointed to signs of a thawing market.

Among those: conversion rates are up at auction.

“Wholesale prices for the 2-6-year-old vehicle segments that comprise of Black Book’s Used Vehicle Retention Index declined in January, but the rate of decline is slowing down,” Black Book chief data science officer Alex Yurchenko said in a news release. “We are starting to see hints of an upcoming, traditional spring market.

“With wholesale and used retail prices still elevated by more than 40% compared to pre-pandemic levels, dealers are turning towards older vehicles to prepare for tax season sales,” Yurchenko said. “Thus, we are seeing more strength in older vehicle segments. Additionally, we are observing increased volume and improved conversion rates at auctions as some concerns about the economy were reduced by recent economic news.”

Specifically, Black Book’s index came in at 167.7 for January, which was 1% softer month-over-month and down 14.9% year-over-year.

Meanwhile, the Manheim index was at 224.8 last month. When adjusting for mix, mileage and seasonality, that is a 12.8% year-over-year decline and a 2.5% month-over-month increase.

Unadjusted, the index fell 11.0% from January 2022 and was up 1.5% from December.

Looking at weekly movements in the Manheim data set, Cox Automotive said in its analysis that there was a 1.2% cumulative hike in Manheim Market Report values the past four weeks, due to “price increases that were not typical.”

The company added: “In January, MMR values are typically little changed. Over the month of January, daily MMR Retention, which is the average difference in price relative to the current MMR, averaged 99.9%, meaning market prices were very close to MMR values.

“The average daily sales conversion rate increased to 59.4% and was above normal for the time of year. For context, the daily sales conversion rate averaged 57.7% in January 2019,” Cox said. “The higher conversion rate indicated that the month saw sellers with more pricing power than what is typically seen for this time of year.”