LAS CRUCES, N.M. -- Gas prices may have gone down, but in recent weeks, home heating costs are soaring.

The average American household will spend more than $1,100 on heating costs from Oct. 1 through March 31. That's up 19.8 percent from last year, and up 65 percent from 2003.

One of the most common searches done on the Consumer Reports website is for pellet and wood burning stoves.

Sutherland's Home Improvement Center in Las Cruces says they are hard to keep on the shelves.

“Right now pellet stoves are just one of the hottest things going everybody is looking to make that dollar go a little bit further and with the efficiency of a pellet stove for people who are on propane the costs are astronomical,” said Gary Mook, General Manager at Sutherlands.

Not everyone can afford the pellet stove in today's economy, but after-Thanksgiving sales could help some folks out.

“Everything in the store is 15 percent off including all the pellet stoves we do have in stock,” said Mook.

Meanwhile many Dona Ana County residents say it's cheaper to throw a log on the fire rather than turn on the propane.

“Right now I believe propane is around $2 a gallon and if you're looking at 100 gallons every other month, it's still cheaper to go with the fire wood to keep our propane costs down,” said John McClure of Radium Springs.

When you hear the cost savings, you can see why.

“I'll probably save a couple thousand dollars just by using firewood instead of propane,” said McClure.

At $200 dollars a cord, it is pretty cheap to heat a home for the winter, and some people are choosing to get permits from the forest service and chop their own.

“It's about the same year after year, I sell about 800 permits,” said Jerry Lutz with the Lincoln National Forest.

For a $20 dollar permit, residents can get 4 cords, and now that gas prices are getting lower, for some it's more economical.