Will New York State See Gas Prices Below $3 Again Soon?

Gas prices are like rollercoasters. They go up and down all the time. But this summer, they're doing the opposite of what people might expect them to do.

Why is summer gas normally more expensive?

In the summer, it's pretty normal to see gas prices go up.  There are a couple of reasons for it. First, we always switch to what's referred to as "summer blend" gas in the warmer months. That gas is normally a little more expensive because it has additional refining processes, and the overall yield of gasoline per barrel of oil is lower.

Also, we're normally traveling more in the summer. When that happens, we use more gas, so the supply goes down. When supply goes down, price goes up.

But a recent study suggests that isn't happening this summer. Instead, they expect the price to go down.

Prices are going down at the pump

According to Yahoo! Finance, the national average for gas on July 10th was $3.17 per gallon.  In June, that price was just a little cheaper ($3.12). A year ago though, we were around $3.50 a gallon.

Right now, people in the Gulf area are seeing the cheapest gas between $2.71-$2.91 per gallon.  The West Coast has the most expensive gas right now, and here in New York, we're seeing prices similar to the national average, from around $3.10-$3.31 per gallon.

However, the experts believe that we could see much cheaper prices by the end of the summer. Supply seems to be up for a couple of reasons. One of them being a stretch of bad weather across the country which has led to people driving less. From floods, to extremely hot temperatures, people have been using less gas. One top of that, OPEC has increased supply, so instead of prices going up this summer, they appear to be going down and they expect them to be less than $3 per gallon for most of the country by fall.

See more on the report by clicking here.