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making the most of Medicare, and happy three-year anniversary to the bull market. That and much more on this Saturday personal finance edition of Motley Fool Money. I'm Robert Brokamp, and this week I speak with Richard Chan of CoverWrite about Medicare basics, as well as how to choose the right options for you during the current open enrollment period.
But first, let's cover what happened last week in money, and we have a birthday to celebrate. The current bull market turned three years old on Monday. The S&P 500 reached a low of 3,577 on October 12, 2022, and then the current bull market began. Over the past three years, the S&P 500 has posted a total return of 90%, while the Nasdaq has soared 118%, according to YCharts, as of October 15th.
But not all stocks have done quite as well. The Dow Jones Industrial Average posted a total return of 68%, international stocks, 79%, and the Russell 2000, 52%. This partially explains why value stocks, international stocks, and small cap stocks are historically cheap, at least relative to U.S. large cap growth stocks.
And when, of course, we have to mention gold, silver, and Bitcoin, they are up 150%, 178%, and 478%, respectively, over the past three years. For our next item, let's check in on what's going on in the auto industry. After all, transportation is the second biggest item in the average American budget behind housing.
A report published this past Monday by Kelley Blue Book tells us that the average price of a new automobile in the U.S. is above $50,000 for the first time ever. Also, it's no longer possible to buy a new car for under $20,000.
Earlier this month, admins reported that despite the higher prices, the average down payment for a new car dropped to $6,020, the lowest level since 2021, which of course means that people are taking on larger loans than ever before.
The percentage of buyers with monthly payments of $1,000 or more accounted for 19.1% of all financed new car purchases near the record set last quarter, and more than one in five car loans are for seven years or longer. Higher prices and interest rates are two of the factors that are likely contributing to an uptick in delinquency rates in subprime auto loans.
According to Fitch, more than 6% of such loans were at least 60 days past due, near an all-time high. And now for the number of the week, and it's more than $1 billion. That's the amount that has been stolen via toll scam texts over the past three years, according to a recent article in the Wall Street Journal. And you may have received one of these texts yourself.
They often claim to be from EasyPass and they say, hey, you owe us some money. Americans reported 330,000 toll scam messages in a single day last month, an all-time high. And the average monthly volume of toll scam messages has increased 350% since January of 2024. The texts usually come from foreign gangs remotely operating so-called SIM farms in the US.
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