After used-car prices rose dangerously close to new-car price tags after the recession, pre-owned prices have started to ease this year.

And Cars.com reported Thursday that December late-model used-car prices hit a new low for 2013.

Rates have fallen $117 from November to rest at an average of $21,952, the site reported on its Kicking Tires blog.

This is $709 less than at the start of the year.

Moreover, Cars.com reported this is the first time this year that the average listing price on Cars.com has dropped below $22,000.

What unit has seen prices fall the most?

This month, the Mitsubishi Outlander led the price drops, with a slide of 3.5 percent. Its asking price fell $668 to $18,155.

To be eligible for consideration, a model had to have 500 cars in the Cars.com national inventory, officials explained.

Interestingly, four luxury units rounded out the top five declines, one of which is the BMW Z4 roadster, continuing “its string of $1,000-plus month-over-month price declines that date back to August,” said Tom Hanley, editor at Cars.com and author of the blog post.

Price gains have been rare in the used segment this month.

On Cars.com, just three models that met the 500 unit limitation saw price gains, with the BMW X3 leading the way with a 1 percent gain to $32,493.

See the original blog post here to view the full list of used cars from the 2010 to 2012 model years with the biggest price drops — as well as those with the biggest gains this month on Cars.com.
 

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