GasBuddy: It's All In The (Price) Spread

According to community-based gas price comparison service, GasBuddy.com, the national average price of gasoline went up more than 40 cents per gallon over the past 40 days.

In California, the average price spiked a dollar per gallon over that same period.

Finding Cheaper Gas

Even though the national average was more than a dollar and four cents per gallon lower than this time last year, given recent price spikes, smart consumers still wanted to know where the lowest priced gasoline was their area.

“Knowing the answer to that question represents hundreds of dollars in savings for savvy consumers,” said Patrick DeHaan, senior petroleum analyst for GasBuddy.

All About The Spread

The secret, DeHaan said, is to know the spread in prices –- from high to low –- in the area in which the consumer “lives, works and fills up.”

Said DeHaan, “By consistently purchasing from retailers pricing at the lowest range for your metro area that exerts additional pressure on others to be more competitive.”  

Spread By Region

GasBuddy conducted analysis of retail gasoline pricing for 2014 and identified 50 metro markets –- 10 in each of the country’s five regions -- based on the Petroleum Administration for Defense Districts (PADD) Regions.

The 10 metropolitan markets listed by GasBuddy represent the greatest and smallest spreads in daily gas prices for that region.

East Coast

The price spread in the East Coast region, for example, ranged from $0.519 per gallon on Long Island to $0.829 per gallon in Washington, DC.

The spread in the nation’s capital ranked second in the country for 2014.

Mid-West

Iowa City, Iowa only had a spread of $0.436 per gallon in 2014, while the spread in Chicago was $0.69 per gallon.

Iowa City ranked 70^th and Chicago came in at eighth in the nation.

Gulf Coast

The range in spreads for the Gulf Coast ranged from $0.367 per gallon in Shreveport to $0.468 per gallon for Houston, Texas.

The overall difference in spreads -- $0.101 per gallon between greatest and smallest spreads -- within a region happened in the Gulf Coast.

Rocky Mountains

Provo-Orum, Utah had a price spread of just $0.251 per gallon in 2014 while prices in Grand Junction, Colorado ranged $0.467 per gallon from low to high.

The Provo-Orum price spread represented the smallest price spread in all listed markets.

Related: GasBuddy's Affordable Last-Minute Spring Break Road Trips

West Coast

When it came to price spreads, the West Coast region knocked it out of the ballpark.

Bakersfield, California came in number one with a price differential of $0.855 per gallon in 2014.

San Rafael featured a spread of $0.645 per gallon, putting it in 13^th place overall.

At the time of this writing, Jim Probasco  had no position in any mentioned securities.

Image credit: Mike Mozart, Flickr