Americans are more underwater on their car loans than ever before
Americans are more underwater on their car loans than ever before
An increasingly large number of Americans owe more on their auto loan than their car is worth
Alternatively: "Car prices higher than ever, wages not keeping up with inflation."
13Yet another reason why car-focused transportation is a hilariously dumb idea.
Build some transit already
11*siphons all the funding away to cronies and general corruption
"See? Mass transit just doesn't work here."
8
The explanation is pretty mundane.
The last 2 years have seen really, really fast depreciation, because the car shortage of 2020-2022 drove up cars way beyond their normal prices. Some cars actually appreciated in value in 2021.
So when the shortage untangled eventually, used car prices plummeted. Here's a chart of the most robust used car price index.
At the same time, several EVs saw huge price drops as Tesla tried to preserve market share against increased competition. When the new car drops in price by $20k, then the used market for that car similarly drops suddenly.
So when the value of vehicles drops unexpectedly across multiple markets, you'll have a lot more people whose car values failed to keep up with their loan balances.
8Americans are more underwater
on their car loansthan ever before18And with our EPA regulations disappearing, that water is toxic.
4
How else can I buy the newest Ford "own the libs" truck with the lift kit and coal-rolling accessories?
31Funny, but let's not pretend this is solely a conservative issue.
People want to own nice shit with modern amenities that's newer so they dont have to mess with it and i don't blame them. That's absolutely reasonable. It's just crazy expensive and many loans are predatory.
10
I bought mine cash, used Peugeot 308, 10k€. I feel like every car in US needs a real-estate-size loan to afford it
9It feels like in the US way more often than ever before people are buying in the luxury/premium car space. I stay exclusively on the cheap end because it's all I need. The options for new economy cars shrink every year, but there's a million pickup and SUV options. It seems normalized to spend way more on a car than you really need, partially because financing is offered on ridiculously long terms (5+ years) for a depreciating asset.
6
I've only ever bought like 20 year old used cars. I can't even comprehend how anyone has enough money to afford a new car. It's not even the price of the car itself, which is always absurd anyways, but the cost of insurance on a car that new and registration is also just insane. A friend of mine recently bought a car that was only 5 years old and their payments including insurance and everything are still almost as much as the mortgage on my house. It's no wonder everyone is under water with their car loans.
27Where did you find that cheap-ass house?
12Picked myself up a crack den (not literally but might as well be) like 8 years ago. My dad built houses and taught me how to do most of the work so I bought a cheap place I knew I could eventually fix. Also in a fairly low COL area. So a shit house in a fairly cheap city in a cheaper housing market. It was either that or just accept never owning a house so I jumped on it and just barely scrape by.
My mortgage payments cost me just as much as renting a slightly nicer house in my area so the point still stands that my friend is paying nearly as much for their vehicle per month as most people here pay in rent.
6
When the pandemic hit, i was just looking for a car. A lot of people back then were selling the cars they haven't payed off yet. I was truly shocked to find out that some people spend like 1300 a month on car payments.
4
An increasingly large number of Americans owe more on their auto loan than their car is worth
So thats what it actually means.
21The same term is used with housing and perhaps anywhere a loan is involved with yes purchase of property.
14Part of me thinks this [the article] is entirely false due to the fact that as soon as someone buys a new car and finances it, they owe more on the loan than the car is worth due to the drive-off value drop (blanking on the actual name)
But I didn't actually read the article, and intuitively I know that the face value conclusion is very likely correct.
6
Feels good to be completely debt free on the cars. Yes it meant when my work car started showing issues, I had to review my expectations when going electric and couldn't get the van/large car I thought I needed and we downsized to a hatch back instead, but truthfully I think that was a kick in the nuts I needed to realise I was getting pulled into a weird spiral of thinking I always need more, when really 99% of the time I'm fine in a small vehicle (and it's so much nicer to drive and get around in). For these few times stuff won't fit I'll use our older ICE which is a bit more spacious, and when that's not enough I'll rent a van and bill it to the client!
5Most people go for low money down offers on loans and stay upside down for at least half the life of the loan.
3