Siena survey finds little change in holiday-spending plans in N.Y.

Just over half (51 percent) of New Yorkers plan to spend more than $500 on gifts this holiday season, down from 56 percent a year ago.

That’s according to a new statewide survey of consumers that the Siena (College) Research Institute (SRI) released Monday.

The SRI poll also found 28 percent have budgeted less than $300 for their holiday spending, which is up from 23 percent a year ago.

Nearly 60 percent of respondents (58 percent) say they are more likely to buy practical gifts that they need more than “impractical” gifts that a consumer may just want to have, the SRI data said.

In addition, the poll also found nearly two thirds will be shopping online this season, up from 56 percent a year ago.

SRI researchers also asked respondents for their thoughts on those retailers that have plans to open on Thanksgiving for “Black Friday” shopping.

The survey found about 64 percent said they don’t think retailers should open on Thanksgiving, a figure that’s up from 54 percent in 2012. At the same time, 8 percent of all consumers and 14 percent of households with children plan to do some holiday shopping on Thursday.

An additional 4 percent of consumers are “thinking about it,” the survey found.

Expect a repeat of 2012 for overall holiday spending among New Yorkers, Donald Levy, SRI director, said in a news release.

 “While we see a little decline in budgets at both the high and low end of the spending ladder, fewer residents today say that they are planning to spend less this year than last but only one in 10 plan to spend more,” Levy said.

The survey also found equal numbers of New Yorkers say they are better off and worse off economically than they were last year, and nearly half say their financial situation hasn’t changed.

“It all seems to add up to a year of little change on spending,” Levy said.

SRI conducted its survey of holiday-spending plans November 17-21 by random telephone calls to 631 New York adults via landlines and cell phones.

SRI statistically adjusted the data by age, and gender to ensure representativeness. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.9 percentage points.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com