Loudonville, NY (WIBX) - Utica was one of four metropolitan areas losing consumer confidence points during the last quarter, according to the Siena Research Institute.

The city lost nearly five points during the last quarter, falling to 63.4 and is now nearly 12 points below the 75 point level where optimism equals pessimism.

Douglas Lonnstrom, with the SRI, says Utica's buying plans also slipped, though three categories remain above their historic averages.

"Utica's buying plans, we look at five major things; cars, computers, furniture, homes and home improvements," Lonnstrom said. "Now four of those are down. Your home buying plans stayed the same, but the other four were down. So, all in all, not a good quarter for the Utica area."

Lonnstrom says the there is hope though, as that all nine metro areas have gained confidence since last year, with Utica showing an 8 percent increase.

"If we go back to a year ago, everybody is up, so that's good news," Lonnstrom said. "Utica certainly has not done well. I mean, you're one of the smaller ones, Utica and Syracuse, those were two of the areas that did not jump up as much as everybody else.

Albany and Binghamton gained the most compared to last year, raising their confidence levels by 27 and 20 percent, respectively.

To read the entire report, click here.

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