Gas prices tumbled across Northeast Ohio over the past week, with averages falling below $4 a gallon in both Akron and Cleveland, according to new GasBuddy data released early Monday and reported by WKYC. Akron’s average dropped 36.5 cents to $3.80 a gallon, and Cleveland’s fell 33 cents to $3.87.
The local drop mirrors a national slide. GasBuddy put the national average at $3.96 after a 39.3-cent dip, and GasBuddy’s head of petroleum analysis, Patrick De Haan, said in a statement quoted by WKYC that gasoline prices fell in every state over the last week, while diesel declined in nearly every state.
De Haan, quoted by WKYC, said the national average dropped below $4 a gallon for the first time since early August. Separate AAA figures show the same direction for Ohio: AAA listed Ohio’s statewide average at about $3.83, with Akron at about $3.83 and the Cleveland-Lorain-Elyria metro at about $3.88 — close to GasBuddy’s city figures.
For drivers, the math is immediate. A 36-cent weekly drop saves roughly $5 on a 14-gallon fill-up compared with a week ago, at a moment when Northeast Ohio households are heading into holiday travel planning and winter heating bills.
The relief follows a costly stretch at the pump. Just weeks ago, GasBuddy averages topped $4 a gallon in both Akron and Cleveland despite Ohio’s gas tax holiday, WKYC reported at the time, with prices climbing more than 20 cents in a single week in that earlier spike.
Background matters here: Northeast Ohio prices swing with refinery output, crude prices and seasonal demand, and the region has seen both directions in quick succession this fall. Monday’s numbers mark the sharpest weekly relief drivers here have had in that stretch, according to the GasBuddy figures reported by WKYC.
The drop also arrives alongside other Akron economic news — Goodyear, the city’s signature employer, named a new interim chief executive on Monday, a transition NewsForce247 covered in Akron-Based Goodyear Names Roger Wood Interim CEO as Mark Stewart Steps Down.
AAA’s Ohio tables underline how fast the turn came. AAA listed Akron’s regular average a week ago at about $4.19 a gallon and a month ago at about $3.57 — meaning Monday’s roughly $3.83 AAA figure sits well below last week’s level even after the month-earlier comparison is taken into account. Ohio’s statewide AAA average, about $3.83, was down from about $3.86 just a day earlier.
The two trackers do not always land on the same number — GasBuddy put the national average at $3.96 on Monday while AAA’s national figure has run slightly higher — but both agree on the direction and the scale of this week’s move in Northeast Ohio, and both put Akron and Cleveland back under the $4 mark that drivers here had only recently climbed above.
What we know — and what we’re still waiting on
What we know: GasBuddy and AAA both show Northeast Ohio averages down sharply on the week and below $4 in Akron and Cleveland. What we’re still waiting on: whether the slide holds through the Thanksgiving travel period, when demand typically pushes prices back up.
What happens next is the next weekly GasBuddy release, due Monday, which will show whether Akron and Cleveland drivers are looking at a lasting break or a brief one. De Haan’s comments, as reported by WKYC, pointed to broad-based declines rather than a one-state fluke.