The used-car buying frenzy

“The used-car lot, ordinarily a haven of haggling and wheeling and dealing, is now a hotbed for wallet-busting transactions,” said Keith Naughton in Bloomberg.com. The average cost of a used car hit a record $26,457 last month, “up almost 30 percent from the beginning of last year.” But the pace of buying has showed no signs of slowing “as consumers adapt to lifestyle changes brought on by the pandemic,” which include more working from home and less use of public transportation. Some dealers are so short on supply, they have “resorted to bombarding customers with pleas to part with their existing vehicles, offering generous trade-in prices.” Even clunkers are commanding a market: “Used vehicles with 100,000 to 109,999 miles on the odometer fetched an average of $16,489 in June.” adjustment (COLA) for Social Security recipients in 2022 to 6.1 percent, according to the advocacy group Senior Citizens League. “The COLA could be subject to change,” with three more months of data to come before the Social Security Administration determines the official number for next year. Either way, the COLA appears to be significantly larger than 2021’s, which was a meager 1.3 percent.