After the typical decline to start the year, used-car prices were mostly on the rise for February, according to the latest Carfax Used Car Index.

Among the seven vehicle segments in the Carfax data, all but one showed year-over-year price growth. And compared to January, four segments increased in price, one was steady and two were down less than a percentage point.

Starting with SUVs, their prices were stable in February, both on a month-over-month (no change) and year-over-year basis (down 0.1%), the Carfax data shows.

Car segment prices were down 0.6% from January, but up 1.7% from February 2025.  Pickup truck prices fell 0.2% month-over-month and rose 4.4% year-over-year, Carfax noted.

In the luxury space, SUVs prices were 0.9% sequentially and 1.7% year-over-year, while cars were up 0.1% from January and 9.2% from February 2025.

Hybrid & EV prices grew 0.7% from January and beat year-ago prices by 2.4%, and vans were up 2.7% month-over-month and 1% year-over-year.

“We saw prices drop low in January — normal for that time of year — and now we’re starting to see prices climb in select categories,” Carfax editor-in-chief Patrick Olsen wrote in the analysis around the index.

“That’s normal for this time of year; as more Americans get their federal and state income tax returns, many will use those towards their next car purchase, new or used.”

He later added that with the average federal tax return amount climbing from last year, “that extra cash could lift demand for all cars, including used models, and as we know, increased demands can lead to increased prices.”

In fact, the third update for this filing season from the Internal Revenue Service showed the average refund is coming in about 10% higher than last year at $3,804.

According to a JD Power forecast released Feb. 19, used-vehicle retail prices in February were at an average of $29,488, which was a $448 year-over-year increase.

“This reflects the continued low supply of recent model-year used vehicles due to lower new-vehicle production during the pandemic,” JD Power president of OEM solutions Thomas King said in an analysis.

“The ongoing strength of used-vehicle prices continues to be good news for new-vehicle buyers with a trade-in, with average trade-in equity in February at $7,013, essentially flat from a year ago,” King said. “However, the number of new-vehicle buyers with negative equity on their trade-in is expected to reach 31.5% — an increase of 3.4 percentage points from February 2025.”