People who complain about gas prices don't understand basic economics.

Suppose gas is $2.00 a gallon for a car that gets 20mpg and is driven 15K / year that's and annual gas cost of $1500.

Now suppose gas is a full dollar more expensive or 50% more expensive than $2/gallon, what does the fuel cost rise to? $2250. That's an extra $750 year. Now suppose you just drive less so instead of driving 15K/year you do 10K/year. What would your gas expense go down to? Oh right, $1500 / year. Now 15K is a lot of mile for this part of the country, so if it really bothers you, move somewhere else. My guess is that small drop in gas prices does little to offset high real estate interest.

Finally the differences are not a full 50% higher, they are more like 20% at the most, in which case these expenses are relatively small compared to real estate or other large ticket items.