STAMFORD, Conn. –

Historically low wholesale supply and continually increasing new-car prices are pushing up values in the wholesale market, according to RVI. The company saw used values jump 1.1 percent month-over-month in July and 16.1 percent year-over-year, according to the latest RVI Market Index report.

More specifically, the RVI Used Car Price Index was at 1.424 in July, up from 1.408 in June and 1.226 in July 2010.

“We’ve started seeing auction supply at a historic low or hovering around these lows, and it’s helping drive prices northward,” RVI’s Wayne Westring told Auto Remarketing this week.

Furthermore, he pointed out that new-car prices have been on a major uptick since the end of 2008 and have grown especially strong in the last six months.

In fact, during June they were up 0.6 percent sequentially and had climbed 4 percent from June 2010.

“So, that’s raising the ceiling for used-car prices, also,” Westring shared.

This price hike was seen in all segments on a month-over-month basis in July except in the luxury small sedan class, which was down 0.2 percent from June.

Fuel-efficient segments, like the luxury small sedan, trailed other segments as gas prices stabilized. For instance, the small SUV (no change), compact (up 0.1 percent), small sedan (up 0.5 percent) and midsize sedan (up 0.7) segments were all behind the industry’s sequential increase of 1.1 percent.

Meanwhile, the sports car class (up 4.3 percent) led the sequential gains, followed by the luxury full-size sedan (up 3.7 percent), luxury coupes (up 2.8 percent) and full-size vans (up 2.7 percent).

Year-over-year, all segments saw price gains, and most were up double-digits. The only segments not to increase double-digits from July 2010 were midsize SUVs (up 9.4 percent), full-size pickups (up 4.1 percent) and full-size SUVs (up 3 percent).

The most significant year-over-year gain was in the subcompact segment, which jumped 41.1 percent, followed by compacts (up 28.5 percent).