While a majority of Americans say they’re satisfied with their local cost of living, a significant share say they’re sweating high costs and are worried about their finances.
All told, 55% of respondents to a new Yahoo Finance/Marist poll say their local area is very affordable (11%) or affordable (44%), compared to 45% who say it’s not very affordable (36%) or not affordable at all (9%).
The poll of 2,575 adults found splits by age and gender, with Gen Z (19%) and Millennial (17%) respondents more likely to say their area is affordable than Gen X (10%) or Baby Boomer, Greatest, or Silent Generation respondents (3%) who said the same thing.
More men (60%) than women (50%) were also likely to believe that the cost of living in their area was affordable or very affordable, according to the poll.
The poll was conducted from June 17 to June 21. Its results were statistically within ±2.1 percentage points. Self-identified Democrats accounted for 38% of the poll’s sample, compared to 37% of self-identified Republicans and 25% who said they were independents.
The poll also found some pronounced trends when it comes to Americans’ personal finances, with 33% of all respondents saying they’ve gotten worse within the last year. Meanwhile, 27% said they’ve gotten better, while 40% said they stayed the same.
Older generations of respondents (39% of Gen X, 35% of Boomers/Greatest Generation/Silent Generation) were more likely to say that their finances had worsened than younger respondents (29% of Gen Z and Millennials, respectively).
The poll also found an income gap, with 47% of households earning less than. $50,000 reporting worsening finances, compared to 27% higher earnings.
Men (36%) were twice as likely as women (18%) to say that their finances had improved, according to the poll.
Meanwhile, a little more than half of all respondents said they were very satisfied (25%) or somewhat satisfied (26%) with their savings, compared to 31% who were very or completely dissatisfied and 18% who were somewhat dissatisfied with their savings.
Read the original article on MassLive .
