With the help of Jim Tennant of The Tennant Group and Michael Meyer of Rate-Highway Inc., we are conducting rate surveys on a weekly basis and providing analysis and comments where appropriate. We publish this monthly recap in our electronic edition and more comprehensive looks in the print editions.

Year-to-year rate quote comparisons were down in 18 of the last 20 months up to March 2016. But rates turned up slightly in April and more in May, providing hope for a strong summer.

Then June turned down again, albeit only $0.74, and July is down again — $0.60 lower than in July 2015. The two major public companies (Avis Budget Group and Hertz) both said that the industy was not over-fleeted going into the summer and that expectations were for flat or slightly higher pricing for the balance of 2016, after a soft first quarter.

Based on what we are seeing at present, pricing may be flat in the last three quarters, but prices don’t look like they get higher.

Three of the five regions were up, the Northwest was down $1.24, but the Midwest’s decline of $10.40 overshadowed the others. Denver had the highest average quotes in July and for the last 52 weeks at $90.52 and $66.73, respectively. At $34.45, Phoenix was July’s lowest city while San Diego (at $34.62) had the lowest average over the last 52 weeks.