The official numbers have not yet been tallied, but industry experts across the board are projecting that November's car sales rates may have reached pre-recession levels. Edmunds.com, for example, predicts that about 1.1 million cars and trucks were sold in the U.S. last month, Forbes reports. If this estimate is accurate, that would increase the Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate (SAAR) to 15 million units, which is the highest SAAR since February 2008. When the recession was in full swing, the annual rate was closer to 10.4 million in 2009, Bloomberg Businessweek reports.<\/p>\n
"Everything is kind of moving along almost in concert now," Jeff Schuster, senior vice president of forecasting for LMC Automotive, a Detroit-area industry consulting firm, told Businessweek.<\/p>\n
Not only are car sales increasing, but the amount people are paying for vehicles is on the rise as well. TrueCar.com reports the average transaction price during November was $30,832, a 1.1 percent ($346) increase from October and $335 more than the same month in 2011.<\/p>\n
"Industry average transaction prices climb once again with consumers' continued appetite for highly contended vehicles," said Jesse Toprak, senior analyst at TrueCar.com. "Today's consumers value a nicely equipped vehicle as much as they do a low cost of ownership. Automakers are getting better at providing all the modern conveniences consumers come to expect for more of their models, resulting in higher overall prices hence improves profitability."<\/p>\n