Q4 consumer confidence falls in Syracuse, rises in Utica and Binghamton

Consumer confidence dropped in Syracuse in the fourth quarter of 2011, diverging from rising confidence levels in most of the state’s other cities — including Utica and Binghamton.

Consumers cut back on their willingness to spend in the Syracuse metropolitan statistical area (MSA), causing the region’s overall confidence to fall 2.5 points to 60.6. That’s according to a Quarterly Consumer Confidence survey the Siena (College) Research Institute (SRI) released this morning.

Syracuse was one of only two MSAs where overall confidence slipped in the fourth quarter. Confidence also declined in Albany, losing 2.4 points to 62.7.

“Syracuse is standing out,” SRI Director Donald Levy says. “It’s certainly someplace that was, across the board, moving in the wrong direction in the fourth quarter.”

Overall confidence rose in seven of the state’s nine MSAs, according to SRI. That includes Utica, where confidence jumped 3.7 points to 56.2, and Binghamton, where it rose six points to 56.8.

Despite those confidence gains, consumers in both Binghamton and Utica displayed less willingness to spend than those in other areas of the state. Utica had the state’s lowest consumer confidence, while Binghamton had the second lowest.

“Numbers in the fifties are disturbing,” Levy says. “What that means is that you have widespread belief in the market that next year is going to be a bad year.”

The SRI survey’s break-even point is 76.01. That means results below 76.01 indicate more consumers responded with pessimistic answers than responded optimistically.

Rochester was home to the biggest bump in consumer confidence in the fourth quarter. Confidence there rose 7.4 points to 70.7. New York City saw the smallest increase, just 0.9 points. New York City’s consumer confidence was 66.1 in the fourth quarter.

SRI made random telephone calls to adults over the age of 18 to conduct the survey. The institute surveyed more than 400 respondents in each of New York’s MSAs to develop consumer confidence indexes, with the exception of New York City and Long Island. SRI developed New York City and Long Island indexes based on averages of its monthly consumer confidence surveys.