Major storms can affect car prices nationwide for many months, because so many cars are lost simultaneously.
"A car that has been through a flood is basically rotting from the inside out," said Patrick Olsen, executive editor of CarFax, which tracks damage to cars. "Anytime you get mud or silt in the connections it can create a short in system, which can cause a car to stall while driving."
Hurricane Harvey, which hit the Houston area in late August 2017, is believed to have been the most destructive in terms of vehicles severely damaged or destroy. Cox Automotive estimates that up to 500,000 vehicles in Texas were lost from that storm, compared to 250,000 for Superstorm Sandy in 2012 and 200,000 for Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
Hurricane Harvey pushed used car wholesale prices nationwide up about 3% in the month after the hurricane, and prices remained elevated through November. Experts fear it will be worse this time, even if fewer cars are affected.
"This is an historically tight market, so it's going to be much more inflated impact we saw in previous storms like Harvey," said Cox Automotive's Reynolds.
