New car prices hit an all-time high as dealers hold onto their upper hand

• Dealer lots are filling up again, but still not fast enough to meet demand.
• Car buyers paid an average of $46,382 for a new car in December.

It's getting easier to find a car on dealer lots, but you'll still have to cough up a lot of cash to go home in a new set of wheels: The average price paid for a new car is projected to hit a record $46,382 this month.

That's according to a Wednesday report from J.D. Power, which also noted that car dealer lots are slowly filling up again Power. Dealer inventory in the US is expected to finish its third consecutive month at more than one million vehicles in December, a sign of sustained improvement after supply-chain snags decimated vehicle availability over the past two years.

But the bounce-back has been too slow to slake years of pent-up demand, according to Thomas King, J.D. Power's president of data and analytics. That will send vehicle transaction prices to a record high even as shoppers become more sensitive to dealer markups, he wrote in the report.

In total, US car buyers are expected to spend $48.2 billion on new vehicles this month. That's the third-highest level ever for the month of December, but a slight decrease from the same month last year.

"While the inventory situation has improved modestly in the fourth quarter, supply remains well below the level at which consumer demand for new vehicles can be met," King wrote.

The record-high prices this month come as automotive retail experts say the pandemic killed the holiday fire sale season.

Manufacturer-sponsored discounts are up slightly from November, according to J.D. Power, but still down from historic levels. The average amount spent per-vehicle on discounts in December is expected to total $1,187, down 21.4% from the same month a year ago.

Total vehicle sales in December are expected to hit 1.2 million units, up 5.3% from the same month last year. For 2022, the US auto industry is projected to sell 13.68 million vehicles, an 8.4% decrease from 2021 when adjusted for selling days.