Michigan gas prices expect to drop to below $2 by Christmas

Call it an early holiday gift: Gas prices are dropping.

Michigan motorists can expect to see their per-gallon prices plummet to $1.99 or less before Christmas, according to a GasBuddy.com forecast released last week.

Nineteen other states are also most likely to see a decrease; this month is when those at-the-pump costs will start to drop. GasBuddy.com predicts the national average will be $2.54 a gallon this month, $2.43 in September, $2.28 in October, $2.10 in November and $1.98 in December.

“We’re confident that our projections give consumers more than accuracy; we think they’ll help them identify some savings that should come in handy at Thanksgiving and Christmas,” Patrick DeHaan, senior petroleum analyst for GasBuddy, said in a statement.

In 2014, the national average cost at the pump dropped more than $1.27 from Aug. 1 to Dec. 31, he added.

GasBuddy.com attributes the coming plunge to “regional, national and global supply & demand fundamentals that continue to place more downward pressure on crude oil prices than upward pressure” and expects the trend to continue “well into 2016.”

For Livonia resident Karen Schneider, the lower prices will be readily welcomed.

Schneider, 42, said she regularly travels to Florida around Christmas to spend time with her elderly parents. Schneider said she might turn the 16-hour drive into a fun road trip for her family this year.

“If that really happens, it would be a great thing for every driver,” she said. “It would basically be cheaper to drive than to catch a flight in some cases, so I’ll keep my fingers crossed.”

Detroit’s average gas price dropped 8.9 cents in the past week to $2.73, according to the real-time gas prices website’s weekly analysis released July 27. Prices were down 73.6 cents from the same time the year before.

The national average in the past week dropped 3 cents to $2.73.

In Michigan, the average gas price is $2.52, AAA’s Daily Fuel Gauge Report reported.

Detroiter Jerisha Fraizer, 24, said gas prices in recent months have put a dent in her pocketbook.

“I have noticed gas prices dropping a little bit in some areas, but I still think it costs too much,” she said. “No one likes to drop a ton of money at the pump, so I’ll be happy when the prices come down.”

Besides Michigan, the other states expected to have sub-$1.99 gas prices are Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina, New Jersey, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.

Grosse Pointe resident Mike Sumpter, 55, said he regularly spends $67 to fill up his 2015 Dodge Durango truck, so lower prices will indeed feel like Christmas.

“That’s pretty much extra cash in your wallet when gas goes down,” he said while pumping gas at the Shell station on Mack in Grosse Pointe. “Who’s going to be unhappy about that?”

Contact Zlati Meyer: 313-223-4439 or zmeyer@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @ZlatiMeyer. Staff writer Katrease Stafford contributed to this report.