DeFede Columns

(CBS4) More than half of the folks in Miami-Dade County say the housing and mortgage crisis has hurt the quality of their life. Those results are part of a new poll conducted by Sergio Bendixen in cooperation with CBS4 News.

Fifty-eight percent of the people surveyed said they have been affected, compared to just 41 percent who said they have not.

"This is not an image problem." Bendixen said. "Having listened to many of these conversations over the phone, people talk specifically about the fact their house has lost 30 percent of its value, about the fact that the bank called them the other week and cancelled their home equity loan."

Bendixen, a longtime South Florida pollster, also asked homeowners whether they believe they would be able to sell their home in a timely manner or for a fair price in the next two to three years. Half of those surveyed said they are not optimistic about the future.

Forty-nine percent did not believe they would get a fair price for their house or condo -- even two or three years from now.
     "The people that are truly in trouble are especially Hispanics and Blacks that make under $25,000 a year or those who make between $25,000 and $50,000 a year- the lower middle class, the working people in Miami," he noted. "Those are the ones who are hurting the most because of this housing and mortgage crisis."

That economic pessimism carries through to how those most affected perceive Miami-Dade County.

When we asked those surveyed if they believed the local economy would be better or worse a year from now, 48 percent said they believed we had not yet hit bottom. Forty-one percent said things might be better a year from now and 11 percent said they just didn't know.

Those results surprised Bendixen.

"Americans are typically very optimistic about the future, especially when it comes to economics," he said. "We've gotten used to the fact that over the last 60 years or so we have had continuing growth and prosperity. So it is very significant that a majority of the voters in Miami-Dade told us in this poll that they think the situation in Miami-Dade, in South Florida, is going to deteriorate over the next year. That pessimism is going to impact the products that they buy; the vacations that they take; their economic activity and could even make the economic crisis worse than it is today," Bendixen said.

The rise in gasoline prices was another area we examined. We asked if or how higher gas prices had changed any of their personal habits.

Amazingly, 37 percent said the higher gas prices did not alter their lifestyle.

Twenty-six percent said they went out less, attending fewer social functions, 13 percent said they had cancelled vacations, 8 percent said they have started carpooling to work and 7 percent said they were using mass transit more often.

"People tell us that they are cutting back on driving for social purposes, to go to parties or to get together with their friends," he said. "Many are even canceling their vacations. Anywhere they get to decide whether to do something or not do something, they are deciding to save money and not get into their cars.

"They are using mass transit more often, they are carpooling more often. Some even said they had changed their jobs or bought a new car because of the gasoline crisis."

 As gas prices continue to climb you can expect those numbers to increase as well.

(The poll of 800 registered voters was conducted between June 6 and June 22 and has a margin of error of +/- 3.5 percent. The questions were written in cooperation with CBS4 News.)

(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

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