Industry analysts expect trend in softening prices to continue into 2026
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With economic uncertainty and a construction industry largely propped up by a few key sectors, the used equipment market has shown a softening of prices in recent months expected to continue into the new year.
“We’re seeing decreases across the board for construction, lift and agricultural equipment categories,” says Brendan Gallagher, data analyst with industry analytics firm EquipmentWatch. But while there has been a steady price slide over the course of 2025, used equipment in construction resale and auction channels have been trending downward for some time, possibly showing softer demand in the longer term among contractors.
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“Construction equipment [prices] are in a slide—its the only [sector] that hasn’t slowed down in terms of prices dropping,” says Gallagher. The trend is seen in the numbers, with construction equipment at resale going for prices 7.64% below a year ago, and machines at auction down 18.58% in the same interval. There are also some notable indicators in what’s entering resale channels, he adds. “Age is up, even though usage is down,” Gallagher notes, which could indicate contractors don’t see much work coming in the first half of 2026 that would make it worth holding onto aging machines that still have some life left in them.
Seasonal pricing is still seen in the data. Prices will likely rise next spring as new 2026 models enter the market and last year’s models enter used equipment channels. “We’re also interested to see if there will be any [Federal Reserve prime rate] cuts, since you would expect to see a rise in asking prices, for equipment [with more favorable lending terms],” says Gallagher.
For original equipment manufacturers, it has been a bit of a strange year as so much of the U.S. construction market is buoyed by work in erecting data centers across the country. Caterpillar Inc. has seen an unexpected benefit from this narrow boom, with its power unit seemingly carrying the Irving, Texas-based OEM’s balance sheet thanks to data centers’ endless hunger for its diesel generator sets.
In Cat’s third quarter results released at the end of October, its energy and transportation division outstripped its construction equipment and resource and mining units in quarterly sales, and directly linked that jump to data centers snapping up generator sets, with construction revenue up a healthy 7% year-over-year and energy and transportation up 17% in the same interval.
“There’s strong demand out there, especially in power generation in the current environment,” said Andrew Bonfield, Cat chief financial officer, in an Oct. 29 statement about the company’s third quarter earnings. “But there’s also a lot of infrastructure spending going on, and that’s benefiting both [our] construction industries and resources industries [segments] as well.”
Profits in Cat’s construction and resource segments were both down in the third quarter year-over-year, which Bonfield attributed to “the impact of higher manufacturing costs, principally tariffs, and the impact of lower prices, partially offset by high sales volume for both of those segments.” By contrast, Cat’s energy and transportation segment saw a growth in profit of 17%, to $1.7 billion, which Bonfield noted was in spite of tariff impacts driving up manufacturing costs.
