AviationWeek has an article that talks about the drop in demand for business jets:
It's a tough time to try to sell a business aircraft, perhaps the most difficult resale market since the 2001 to 2004 slump. And most analysts believe the resale market will get worse before it improves, perhaps sinking to levels not seen since the early 1980s. The rollercoaster ride will continue for an uncertain period of time because dealers aren't confident enough in market demand to start building inventory at wholesale prices. Without such a wholesale price floor, it's tough to establish profit margins and thus retail prices. So sellers face turbulent conditions well into 2009.
''[In July 2008], the market was still good for large-cabin, long-range aircraft," said Sean Lancaster, vice president of Washington, D.C.-based Bristol Associates, an internationally recognized firm that specializes in business aircraft transactions. "Now, almost everything is cold, including BBJs, Gulfstreams and Globals. There is no wholesale market and I don't know where the bottom is because nobody is buying inventory. Nothing is hot, but if an aircraft is priced insanely cheap, say 20 percent below value, it will sell."
"The market is flooded with inventory, especially with Lehman Brothers and AIG dumping their airplanes," said Marc Foulkrod, chairman of Burbank-based Avjet Corp., a large-cabin, long-range aircraft management and charter firm that also specializes in aircraft sales and purchase transactions.
"Forget the [price] premiums people were used to getting in 2006, 2007 and early 2008 when airplanes sold for up to 120 percent of their original price. The historical core residual value is 85 to 90 percent [of original price] for well-maintained aircraft and it sunk to 70 percent in 2001 through 2003. Now we're correcting back to the norm," explained Mark Bloomer, president of Camarillo, Calif.-based Bloomer deVere Group Avia.
Full text here:
Increasing Resale Value: What Really Counts? | AVIATION WEEK