AUSTIN, Texas — If you're considering buying a used car anytime soon, you may want to hold off – especially in Austin.
A new report by iSeeCars, a vehicle search engine that provides insights, found that the average price for a used car in Austin jumped more than $8,400 since this time last year. That's a 32% increase from March 2021.
Nationwide, the average price jumped 30% compared to March 2021. For Austin, the spike marked the highest of any city in the Lone Star State and the 11th highest in the U.S., per the report.
Houston was the second Texas city on the list and far behind Austin in price change, coming in at 37. Dallas-Ft. Worth and San Antonio also made the list, claiming slots 49 and 50, respectively. According to the report, San Antonio had the smallest price increase at nearly 11%, while San Francisco had the greatest increase at 37%.
Cars seeing the biggest price jumps are small hybrids and electric vehicles, which the report said is due to rising gas prices.
“Small cars have become the only affordable used car option for a growing segment of the population, and their price increases reflect the high demand these otherwise low-demand vehicles have experienced in recent years,” iSeeCars Executive Analyst Karl Brauer said in the report.
The rising prices for both new and used vehicles are due to supply constraints and high demand. The low supply, the report said, is due to ongoing microchip shortages since suppliers paused production at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and were overwhelmed when demand for new vehicles recovered.
Vehicle prices could rise again due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine since Russia is a major supplier of nickel, palladium and aluminum for car parts, the report said.
Read the full report here.
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