November saw a continuation of trends from last month in Canada, with inventory continuing to decline, prices rising, and days on market shrinking. Inventory decline was at a more modest rate of 0.6% from October for new, however, inventory levels are down 50.9% year-over-year. Used also saw declines in inventory but at a slightly higher clip of 2.1%.
The continued declines in inventory put further upward pressure on average listing prices, with the new average listing price rising 6.4% to Can$58,656, which is now up 25.5% year-over-year. Used prices also continued to rise, with the used average listing price increasing 4.3% from October to Can$32,002, which is up 37.2% from last year.
With new vehicle production still limited and demand high, there has been a further reduction in how long vehicles are available on market. The new vehicle average days-on-market dropped by 11.1% in November to under 65 days and is down 33.3% from last year. Used vehicles saw a decline as well, but not as significant, with the average days-on-market declining 3.4% from October and is now down 16.7% from last year.
Outlook
While new sales numbers for 2021 look positive compared to 2020’s COVID impacted numbers, when compared to pre-COVID levels, you can more clearly see the impact that limited inventory is having. Overall, the expectation is that we’ll see sales volumes recover faster than inventory, so even though vehicle production is picking up, we likely won’t see a significant impact on new inventory until the second half of 2022.
For more insights, download the November edition of the Vehicle Availability Index & Insights report.