The typical summer build in inventory is being held at bay perhaps by buyers’ sense that values have arrived at such attractive, even laughably low, levels that it doesn’t make sense not to buy. Some would-be sellers may be applying similar logic and removing their aircraft from the market as a result of those same low levels. Regardless of the reason, inventory is holding steady at a time when it often increases.
Certainly, the incremental pullback in total numbers should not be read as suggesting that all things are rosy. Consider the GIV-SP, which in each of the last two years has yo-yoed from glut to dearth. Each spring, inventory drifted below 15 offerings, or just below 5 percent of the total number in operation, making one believe the meltdown had stopped and that prices were poised to improve with any further reduction in inventory. That hope went out the window for sellers when offerings inexplicably doubled in the remaining months of the year and pricing continued its downward trek.
