Updated 11/03/2011 09:58 PM
YNN-Marist Poll: New Yorkers pessimistic about the future
If it seems New Yorkers are gloomier than ever about the economy, well, now we’ve got the numbers to prove it. Our exclusive YNN-Marist College poll finds voters are down on the state’s economic future and even more pessimistic about their own futures. Our Bobby Cuza has more.
To view our videos, you need to
enable JavaScript. Learn how.
install Adobe Flash 9 or above. Install now.
Then come back here and refresh the page.
NEW YORK STATE -- You don’t have to look far to find ample signs of discontent with our economic outlook, but the latest YNN-Marist College poll finds despair has increased sharply in the past six months alone.
Just 23 percent of registered voters expect their family finances to get better in the coming year. That’s an eight point drop-off from our poll in May. Twenty-two percent expect their finances to get worse and 55 percent to stay the same.
“That really reflects, I think, the duration of this economic decline and the fact that people just don’t have a sense that we’ve bottomed out yet,” said Lee Miringoff, Marist College pollster.
Voters in New York City, though, have a somewhat brighter outlook than those upstate. And Democrats are also apparently more optimistic: 29 percent see their finances improving, compared to just 17 percent of Republicans and 18 percent of those not enrolled in a party.
New Yorkers may be increasingly pessimistic about their own futures, but it doesn’t appear to be driving them away. While one in every four people says they plan to move away sometime within the next five years, including 38 percent of those under the age of 30. Those figures are basically unchanged since our last poll in May.
So just how affordable is New York for the average family? A combined 73 percent said not at all or not very affordable and 25 percent said affordable, while one percent said very affordable.
But it’s not that same one percent being vilified in Zuccotti Park. In fact, lower income New Yorkers were more likely to find the state affordable.
As for the direction of the state economy, just 13 percent say it’s getting better right now while 36 percent say it’s getting worse and 51 percent say it’s staying the same. And 54 percent believe the worst is yet to come and 42 percent believe the worst is behind us.
More than three quarters of those polled believe New York State is in a recession.
Miringoff said, “The economic picture is certainly very bad. And there’s no sense here, as elsewhere, of any great recovery.”