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.

The double digit year-over-year increases that we have seen every month since June did not hold through October. However, the six-city average increase was still a respectable $5.73.

Looking back over the last two and a half years, we saw a decrease in the six-city average quotes from May to October 2012 compared to the same months in 2011. (We started the survey in May 2011). Starting November 2012, as can be seen from the year-to-year comparison above — with the exception of a flat April — we have seen healthy year-over-year increases each month.

Each of the surveyed cities have seen healthy year-over-year increases, as well — as demonstrated in the averages of the last two 12-month periods in the table above. Seattle started out with the second lowest rates, but it had the largest average increase. Los Angeles had both the lowest starting rates and the smallest increase.