Used loader backhoe inventory on Sandhills platforms fell 25.66% year-over-year in February 2026, the sharpest single-category decline in the used medium-duty construction equipment market. Month-over-month, backhoe numbers dropped another 2.66%, according to the February Sandhills Global market report released March 6. This is not a recent trend. It has been building for most of 2025.

The market has absorbed those backhoes. Rental fleets took a portion. Contractors who ran them held onto them. And new replacements cost more than they did 18 months ago. The result is a category where scarcity is now real. Auction values for used loader backhoes rose 1.87% year-over-year in February even as overall construction demand was soft, which tells you buyers are paying up when a good machine surfaces. If you are sitting on a clean backhoe right now, the data says you have pricing power. Use it.

AUCTION RECAP

The Motor Grader Market Just Revealed Exactly How Hungry the Global Buyer Base Is

Ritchie Bros. released results this week from its first national unreserved auction of the year in Australia, held February 25-26. The event set records across every participation metric: 4,795 bidders from 177 countries, the highest registrations and web traffic in the event's history. Every item sold on auction day with no reserve prices and no minimum bids.

The standout results were not the trucks. They were the earthmoving iron. A 2022 Cat 150 AWD motor grader cleared AUD 455,000. A 2017 Cat D8T dozer hit AUD 450,000. A 2021 John Deere 670GP motor grader brought AUD 287,500. The top buyer countries included the United States and the United Arab Emirates, meaning these prices were set by a global buyer pool competing on the same lots. Motor graders and dozers were listed as the top equipment categories by demand, which lines up directly with the Sandhills February data showing dozer auction values up 2.03% month-over-month in North America. What moves the needle at an unreserved auction in Brisbane shows up in your North American comps within a quarter.

If you have late-model motor graders or dozers on your lot, the global market is telling you something. This is not a soft category. Price accordingly.

INVENTORY SNAPSHOT

The Iron Is Scarce, the Forklifts Are Not, and the Dozer Market Is Getting Interesting

Wheel Loaders. Inventory is down 13.75% year-over-year across Sandhills platforms, the steepest YOY decline in the heavy-duty category. Asking prices rose 2.2% month-over-month in February, the largest monthly gain among all heavy-duty categories. Auction values are up 1.49% year-over-year. If you are buying a wheel loader in the next 60 days, you are competing against a shrinking pool of sellers who know the supply is thin. Move fast on anything that is priced to the older comps.

Crawler Dozers. The first inventory uptick in months arrived in February, with dozer numbers rising 2.46% month-over-month. Do not read this as a turn. It is a blip against a sustained downward trend and a still-compressed YOY supply picture. Auction values moved up 2.03% month-over-month. Asking values are down 2.9% year-over-year, which creates a narrowing window for buyers to find a deal before those YOY declines get absorbed by rising auction floors. The global auction data from Australia reinforces this: used Cat D8T iron is trading at serious money internationally.

Loader Backhoes. Down 25.66% year-over-year and still falling monthly. Auction values up 1.87% year-over-year despite the demand backdrop being mixed. This is the scarcest category on the board by a wide margin. If your lot has a clean backhoe with reasonable hours, it should be listed and priced to what the February auction data says, not to what you paid for it three years ago.

Skid Steers and Compact Track Loaders. Overall medium-duty inventory is down 13.24% year-over-year. Track skid steer auction values rose 1.19% month-over-month in February. The category is tightening slowly, and the Bobcat Classic and Pro launch arriving at dealers in summer 2026 will add new product pressure on used pricing for older R-Series and M-Series machines. If you are holding older skid steer inventory, the window to sell above depreciated value is now. It will close once the new lineup lands.

Forklifts. The lone category where used inventory is trending up, not down. Asking and auction values are under pressure as a result. Forklifts are the contrarian trade in this market: if you are buying, this is one of the few places where supply is on your side and negotiating room is real.

THE LUNCH ROOM

Have a hammer price from this week's North American auctions that looked unusual in either direction, or are you seeing something in your local market that the national data is missing? Reply and tell me. The floor-level intel always beats the index.

— MachineryBrief

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