Sara Routhier, Managing Editor of Features and Outreach, has professional experience as an educator, SEO specialist, and content marketer. She has over five years of experience in the insurance industry. As a researcher, data nerd, writer, and editor she strives to curate educational, enlightening articles that provide you with the must-know facts and best-kept secrets within the overwhelming worl...

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Joel Ohman is the CEO of a private equity-backed digital media company. He is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™, author, angel investor, and serial entrepreneur who loves creating new things, whether books or businesses. He has also previously served as the founder and resident CFP® of a national insurance agency, Real Time Health Quotes. He also has an MBA from the University of South Florida. ...

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Reviewed by Joel Ohman
Founder, CFP®

UPDATED: Sep 14, 2012

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Auto loan rates fell between late August and mid September, according to Bankrate. 60-month auto loan rates for new cars fell from 4.38 percent to 4.37 percent. 48-month new car loan averages remained flat from the final week of August to 4.23 percent.

While these declines may seem minimal, they are simply a continuation of a much larger decline that’s been occurring since the end of July, when new car loan rates were at 4.47 percent.

Fortunately for buyers, this auto loan rate downward trend shows few signs of slowing or stopping.

Lending policies may not be completely responsible for declining auto loan rates, as a closer examination of purchasing demographics may show.

Buyers between the ages of 18 and 34 only purchased 11 percent of the vehicles that were bought this past April, reported Bloomberg News. This is a 17 percent decline compared to April 2007—which was only months prior to the beginning of the worst recession in recent history.

Buyers in such a young age bracket include the Millennial generation—persons who were born from the late 70s to the early 2000s. Currently, the millennial generation faces massive unemployment and subsequently accounts for a sizable—if not a majority—percentage of the ongoing Occupy Wall Street (OWS) Movement across the country.

Another possible explanation for this decline in automobile purchases is that such a technologically focused generation may be prioritizing their money for the purchase of gadgets and electronics instead.

Despite their age-specific struggles, the Millennial generation is not the only group facing unemployment. Millions of non-Millennials remain unemployed, despite assurances from the White House that the recession has ended. In a seeming contradiction, the White House contends and acknowledges ongoing economic difficulties—as highlighted by the President’s recent statements at the Democratic National Convention—while simultaneously maintaining the recession ended in 2009.