BALTIMORE, MD—For the third consecutive week, the nation’s average price of gasoline has dropped, falling 3.2 cents from a week ago to $3.58 per gallon on Monday, according to GasBuddy data compiled from more than 12 million individual price reports covering over 150,000 gas stations across the country.

The national average is down 3.7 cents from a month ago but is 6.1 cents per gallon higher than a year ago. The national average price of diesel has fallen 4.6 cents in the last week and stands at $3.90 per gallon—9 cents lower than one year ago.

“While pump prices haven’t exactly plummeted, we’ve seen the average price of gasoline drop in a majority of states over the last week as refineries finish maintenance and ramp up output of products like gasoline,” said Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy. “With gas prices now nearing a 10-cent drop to the high we saw a few weeks ago, the future looks good as we get closer to Memorial Day; price drops could potentially accelerate after last week’s jobs data shows the economy continues to cool off. While gas prices stand slightly above where they were last year, I expect most Americans will see prices fall before the holiday weekend, and I’m optimistic the trend could extend into June and beyond. I’m excited to say it does appear that for now, the worst is behind us.”

The most common U.S. gas price encountered by motorists stood at $3.49 per gallon, up 10 cents from last week, followed by $3.29, $3.39, $3.59, and $3.19 rounding out the top five most common prices.
The median U.S. gas price is $3.45 per gallon, unchanged from last week and about 13 cents lower than the national average.  The top 10% of stations in the country average $5.02 per gallon, while the bottom 10% average $2.98 per gallon.

The states with the lowest average prices: Mississippi ($3.03), Oklahoma ($3.05), Arkansas ($3.10).
The states with the highest average prices: California ($5.23), Hawaii ($4.75), and Washington ($4.61).

See previous gas price reports here

In the Baltimore metro area, the cheapest gas this week could be found at the following locations:

Photo via Pixabay