South Florida Drivers Feeling Pain At The Pump

MIAMI (CBS4) - All you have to do is drive by your local gas station to see prices are rising again.

The American Automobile Association reports pump prices were up about a dime a gallon in South Florida over the past week.

Unleaded regular is averaging $3.05 in Miami, up about nine cents a gallon.

In Broward it's up a full dime at $3.04 a gallon.

The statewide average is $2.99, also up about nine cents and beating the National Average of $2.97 a Gallon.

It's not exactly what holiday shoppers have been hoping for as they plan their trips to the Mall and their end-of-the year travel.

Some financial analysts believe families could be forced to cut their holiday spending or change any planned trips to the mall through the end of the year.

"People are probably going to accommodate rising gas prices by cutting back, But a lot of shopping has already been done earlier in the season. I would expect to see more online shopping this year", says
Josh Mugavin, Financial Planner at Coral Gables' Evensky & Katz.

Gas consumption has actually dropped the past few weeks, with plenty of supply according to Triple-A.

So our recent rising prices are not coming from traditional supply and demand pressures.

Unless Wall Street sees unexpected major gains which can trigger even higher wholesale higher based on investor demand, we shouldn't expect much higher pump prices through the end of the year.

And because much of the Holiday Shopping Season started so early this year, after Halloween, many shoppers got their holiday buying done before gas prices started rising again.

On the "Shopping Front", some analysts predict Rising Gas Price could hurt Traditional

Retailers, but Online Shopping should remain strong.

Another "Pricing Wildcard"?

If we get a bitter-cold winter, heating oil demand will rise. And that could trigger higher pump prices here and across the country.