Car lease credit applicants registered a 69.8% approval rate in September on Swapalease, a 3.9% drop from the previous month, according to a company announcement.

Although this did register as a month-over-month decline, looking at it on a year-over-year basis, September’s approval rate registered as a 22.2% improvement from 2017.

Lease approval rates on Swapalease have been gradually rising since the start of 2018. Apart from a decline in May, lease approval rates have been climbing through the rest of the year.

“Automotive shopping was unusually strong during the summer months due to the shopper confidence and the strength of the economy,” said Scot Hall, executive vice president of Swapalease.com “We’ve seen a slightly lower number of applicants for September, which we expect to increase again pending the upcoming holiday shopping season.”