As the driving season opened for the northern part of the country, the Hagerty Market rating continued to fall. Despite another 0.6-point drop this month, the rating still remains in the “rapid expansion” range at 71.77, though it will likely retreat into the 60s by the end of the summer.
The main take-away is that prices, adjusting for inflation, of course, have dropped down to pre-pandemic levels, but the market remains strong.
The Overall Auction Activity score has dropped to December 2021 levels. While the number of cars sold at auctions is at an all-time high, the receding median sales price—a low not seen since March 2020—held this score back. Despite softening macro-economic indicators, our industry experts have yet to see general economic concerns filter into the public classic car market—buyer confidence remains high.
Broader economic concerns appear to have leached into the private market, however. Private sales activity has continued to fall, dropping to its lowest point since October 2021—but is still a respectable 73 out of 100 on our scale. Owners who held on to their cars are not raising insured value at the velocity we saw during the last couple years. The ratio of insured value increases to decreases continues to fall for high-end vehicles as well as more mainstream classics,. However, for every phone call we get to lower an insured value, we still get nearly a dozen calls to raise values. At its height in fall 2022, this ratio was 1-to-17.
At the start of July, a new update to the Hagerty Price Guide will be released. The next Market Rating update will demonstrate whether the softening prices we've seen at auction have made their way into our Price Guide.
thanks for this information
Not shocking that in a lousy economy where everything is going up in price that luxury purchases like overpriced collectibles is slowing down. Again, it’s only slowing down for the average person who is going to finance. The big collectors don’t have those financial issues holding them back yet it seems.
Last summer I received a notice that I should raise my car insurance. If Haggerty was sending out the notice probably a number of us did. That May account for the comment about drivers raising insurance if they received the notice. It doesn’t necessarily count for a
Person told to increase vs those who lowered same if an increase was suggested
With inflation decreasing from roughly eight and a half last year to currently four and a subsequent decrease in material costs which are slowly filtering down I can’t see that as the reason for a slump in the values of the collector car market. My father taught me the worst time of year to buy a car was in the spring/summer. On more than one occasion I’ve seen cars who’s owners were ‘ firm’ on the price, that is until the trees lost their leaves and that chunk of cast iron started to take a bit longer to warm up. Pretty much like an ‘end of season sale ‘ , buy when demand is at its lowest.
The market is too big and too diverse to give it one judgement. Our condo appreciated 22% in one year. Same apartment in another city may have appreciated 2% or depreciated 10%, same as rents. A convertible is worth more in FL or CA than NY or NJ. A car w/o A/C is worth much less in the sunbelt than in MN. Is the car intended to be a driver? What is the price range? 50k 500k or seven figures?
Finally, auction prices are not REAL prices. Most cars are NOT sold at auction. They are sold or traded privately with compensation paid not made public.
Just for Schnitz & Giggles, I wish there were a way to see how many vehicles actually sell from the Hagerty Marketplace site. It would be neat to see what percentage of all vehicles that are posted actually sell. It would also be neat to see what the asking prices were, compared to what the actual sale prices were. This would give you somewhat of an idea of what vehicles are actually selling for, and what percentage of them actually sell. In my opinion, it seems like a lot of people don’t really want to sell their vehicles, they just want to use the site to show off their vehicles and do a little phishing on the side.