With more than seven days into May already in the books, Black Book is seeing even stronger signals that the spring market might be in its closing stages for 2018.

This week’s Black Book Market Insights report highlighted how most car values finally are cooling off from the last several weeks of increasing price activity. That being said, editors still spotted a handful of car segments still showing a slight uptick in values this past week.

“The market is shifting towards neutral as spring seasonality wears off. Non-luxury segments in small crossovers and sedans showed stability last week,” said Anil Goyal, executive vice president of operations at Black Book, in the analysis.

Volume-weighted, editors determined that overall car segment values barely increased by just 0.05 percent last week. In comparison, the market values for cars had risen by 0.24 percent during the prior week.

Within cars, Black Book reiterated that all non-luxury segments performed well with values stable to slightly up.

Again volume-weighted, editors noticed that overall truck segment values (including pickups, SUVs and vans) settled nearly flat. In comparison, the market values had decreased by just 0.06 percent during the previous week.

Within trucks, Black Book found that the subcompact luxury crossover segment performed the worst, softening by 0.48 percent of $80.

Moving on to what Black Book lane watchers observed at auctions, two of the four reports coming back into headquarters originated from Florida.

One representative shared, “The financial account reps did well and were selling most everything. The dealer lanes were better than they have been in a while.”

The other watcher added, “We had a lot of no-sales on the older inventory which was a pattern shift. Trucks and SUVs are still the center of attention.”

Next door in Georgia, some similar patterns were observed.

“Prices were strong all day in the manufacturer lanes. There was a fair amount of no-sales in the dealer lanes but the units that sold brought good money,” Black Book’s representative stationed in Georgia said. “Overall, vehicles 2-years-old or older sold well while the newer ones were hit or miss depending on condition.”

Finally, the anecdote out of the Midwest might have summarized the buzz in the lanes nationwide.

 “The vehicles that sell bring good money, but there remains a shortage of clean, low-mileage units,” Black Book’s lane watcher in Indiana said.

Specialty markets update

As they do at the beginning of each month, Black Book editors recapped their latest assessments of the specialty markets. Here are their latest observations:

— Collectibles: Black Book indicated that there have been several successful collectible car auctions this spring. Editors pointed out that Barrett-Jackson’s Palm Beach sale, celebrating its 16th anniversary, was perhaps the most visible, as it was a four-day event and was extensively televised.

— Recreation vehicles: Black Book noted that RV values at auction, including most towable and motorized vehicle segments, decreased last month. “This is not typical for this time of year, as most dealers are scrambling to stock their lots before the first customers come in,” editors said.

— Powersports: Black Book insisted that cruisers are the “big winners this month,” as both metrics and domestic v-twins are showing solid gains as the powersports market enters its strongest portion of the year.

— Heavy-duty trucks: Editors said that wholesale prices are doing “exceptionally well,” with a small overall deprecation showing up on late models, while the older segment dropped a little more.

— Medium duty: Black Book explained that limited used supply is helping older units maintain their values slightly better than the late models. “In addition, new supply is helping to put some added pressure on late model units causing them to depreciate a bit more than they have in the past couple of months,” editors added.