First year-over-year decline in auction sales volumes since late 2022

June marked the first time in more than two-and-a-half years that wholesale auction sales fell on a year-over-year basis, according to the latest AuctionNet data from the National Auto Auction Association.

While year-to-date auction sales are up close to 6%, last month’s volumes were off 1.9% from June 2024 (selling-day adjusted), coming in at 540,200, NAAA said.

The last time sales dipped year-over-year was December 2022 — some 30 months ago.

In the first half of the year, there were 3.59 million wholesale sales, a 5.7% improvement.

There has been just over a 5% increase in dealer sales year-to-date and a 7.4% increase in commercial sales, according to NAAA. However, the year-to-date gains have narrowed from April, when dealer volumes were up 8.5% year-to-date and commercial sales were up 11.0%.

As for last month, NAAA attributes the downturn in June in part to the plummeting sales of off-lease-heavy 3-year-old vehicles, which fell 25% year-over-year.

“Historically, dealers scoop up large quantities of clean, late-model off-lease vehicles before they can make their way to auction because they are highly desirable substitutes for more expensive new vehicles (think OEM CPO programs),” NAAA vice president Larry Dixon wrote in analysis accompanying the AuctionNet data.

“Dealer demand for these units is being exacerbated by tariff concerns over new vehicle production and higher prices, and this heightened demand is compounding the already limited supply of off-lease vehicles at auction, which is low due to fewer new vehicle lease originations a several years ago.”

There was a 12.2% decline in 4- to 5-year-old vehicle sales at auction in June, NAAA said, while sales of vehicles 7 years and older climbed 2.4% amid high repossession volumes.

There was a 12.7% spike in sales of vehicles up to 2 years old, but that was a dropoff from an average growth rate of 28.4% during the prior three months. NAAA said the slowdown is likely due to a dip in off-rental volumes.

Note: This is part of a monthly series in which Auto Remarketing shares AuctionNet data and commentary provided by the National Auto Auction Association.

As noted by the organization, more than 260 NAAA member auctions power AuctionNet, making it the most comprehensive source of wholesale auto auction sales data in the U.S. Unless otherwise noted, auction sales figures are based on total reporting auctions, the number and composition of which may vary over time.  Data below courtesy of AuctionNet/NAAA.