Will gas prices rise during holiday travel time? This chart should cheer you up.

The nation's average price of gasoline is expected to stand around $3 a gallon this holiday season. GasBuddy, a fuel savings platform, collected pricing data from more than 150,000 stations across the country to determine the national average. Compared with a year ago, gas prices are down 7.1 cents a gallon.

Last week the average price of gas was $2.97 a gallon − the lowest recorded since May 2021, GasBuddy reported.

Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, said this is a sign that gas prices are normalizing after the shock of the COVID-19 pandemic and other factors.

De Haan told Paste BN that based on the timing and cycling of prices, consumers could see gas prices right around the $3 mark for Christmas Day. "We're hovering right there," he said. "My hope is that by Christmas, we could see the national price below $3 a gallon."

De Haan said price cycling, in which gas stations are essentially undercutting one another to the point where they are selling at or below their cos, is affecting national estimates. "In some instances they raise prices 40-50 cents a gallon," De Haan said.

After these cycles play out, prices are expected to level out just before the holiday, De Haan said. "All of these states that cycled are now pushing the national average back down. That momentum should accelerate, and that's why I think we may be just under the $3-a-gallon mark on Christmas day itself."

Which states have the cheapest average fuel prices?

GasBuddy reported that the most commonly encountered gas price is $3.19 a gallon, up 40 cents from last week. The second-most common gas price is $2.99, followed by $2.89, $2.79 and $3.09.

The states with the lowest average prices are Oklahoma with an average $2.44 a gallon, followed by Texas at $2.50 a gallon and Arkansas at $2.55 a gallon.

The states with the highest average prices are Hawaii, where the average gas price is $4.44 a gallon, followed by California at $4.24 a gallon and Washington at $3.84 a gallon.