SUPPLY & DEMAND

COST OF LIVING DENTS OUR WALLETS WHILE SOME BIG BUCKS GHOSTED ON THE AUCTION FLOOR AS MARKET SKITTERS

- CLIFF CHAMBERS

For quite some years, the first Tuesday of the month (unless it was November) would pass largely without comment. Since mid-2022 though, it has become a day of dread accompanied by tugging at the wallet as unseen hands removed a slab of notes and handed them to your mortgage provider.

Inflation is the alleged cause and pinching our money the only remedy. With less money available, the experts say, consumers will refuse to pay inflated prices and vendors will reduce them.

To date that strategy hasn’t had an effect on supermarket essentials and property is also proving resilient. However, there are signs that tighter finance is affecting the price of interesting motor vehicles.

Most obviously, the ‘money no object’ operators who pushed pretty ordinary examples of ‘iconic’ cars to seven-digit prices are gone. Cars of that quality are where they belong in the sub-$500k range and those that could genuinely bring a million back in their bunkers until values surge again.