Contractors are hesitant to sell off their current roster of equipment items, and demand for new equipment continues to outpace the available inventory. That’s according to the latest EquipmentWatch report, which looks at some of the most recent numbers to analyze the equipment market.

“At the start of the year, there was hope that rapid inflation would be in the rearview by the midyear mark,” the latest EquipmentWatch report states. “For the first six months of this year, we’ve seen average resale values for construction equipment remain relatively flat, even trending down slightly in some months.”

The report leverages key equipment values, market activity, age and usage metrics to act as a monthly resource for the construction industry. It studies the latest numbers available to help industry professionals make better-informed decisions.

The average age of equipment continues to rise and is up 14.9% from last year and almost 30% from where it was two years ago at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the report states.

Due to price spikes that happened earlier this year, average resale values remain “considerably higher than previous years.”

Fair-market value for construction equipment in June 2022 was up 4.8% from the prior year and nearly 10% from 2020 numbers. In the equipment auction space, fair-market value of equipment also was up.

“Like the resale channel, [auction] values have remained relatively stable throughout the year, but some of the spikes we’ve seen in previous months keep them well above comparable periods from previous years,” the report states.

Recently, Brian Dewey, head of strategic accounts at EquipmentWatch, explained the lower resale activity to WOC360.

"The lower level of resale activity shows that contractors are holding on to their equipment as the construction segment continues to rebound thanks to a greater number of available projects fueled by the release of Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funds,” Dewey said.