Carl Campanile
At least it’ll be easier to find a seat on the subway.
More than a third of all city residents say they can’t afford to live anywhere in the state — much less the Big Apple — and believe economic hardship will send them packing in five years or less, according to a dismal new poll.
That’s 41 percent of city dwellers who say they can’t cope with New York’s high cost of living, according to a Quinnipiac poll published Wednesday.
Separately, 41 percent fear they’ll be “forced” to pull up stakes and seek greener pastures where the economic climate is more welcoming.
“They are making this city a city for the wealthy, and they are really choking out the middle class,’’ said Ari Buitron, a 49-year-old paralegal and born-and-bred New Yorker from Forest Hills, Queens.
“A lot of my friends have had to move to Florida, Texas, Oregon. You go to your local shop, and it’s $5 for a gallon of milk and $13 for shampoo. Do you know how much a one-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment is? $1700! What’s wrong with this picture?”
And New Yorkers’ collective outlook seems to be getting worse — just 31 percent said they thought they’d have to leave when pollsters asked the same question in May.
City dwellers were not surprised their neighbors have such a bleak outlook.
“I am definitely not going to be here five years from now. I will probably move to Florida or Texas where most of my family has moved,” said New York native Dexter Benjamin, 23.
Those who’ve already made a break for it out of the Empire state say they’re not looking back.
“Moving to New Jersey has only added 15 minutes to my commute! And I am still working in Downtown Brooklyn,” said Robert Carpenter, 50, who moved from Brooklyn to northern Newark in 2016. “I save about $300 extra a month, which in the long run it matters.”
Even well-heeled New Yorkers are being lured down south thanks to New York’s hefty tax burden and new federal tax policies that punish high-tax states, according to Miami property magnate Gil Dezer.
“Because of the city tax and the non-deductibility of your real estate taxes, we’re seeing a lot more people with piqued interest,” he told The Post.
The poll’s findings reinforce research done by the Empire Center for Public Policy that shows that New York leads the nation in terms of residents jumping ship.
“It’s not surprising. The out migration downstate is first and foremost about affordability. Rent and property taxes downstate are very high,” said the Empire Center’s E.J. McMahon.
The poll also found that minorities have an even grimmer outlook on their economic prospects.
Asked to rate their economic situations, non-whites disproportionately ranked their situations as “poor” and “not good” compared to whites. Meanwhile, whites were quicker to report their situations as “excellent” or “good.”
Some people of color said gentrification is forcing them out.
“When I moved here there was no H&M, no Shake Shack — it was authentically African-American New York Harlem,” said Washington Heights resident Clifton Oliver, 43, who is black. “Now Neil Patrick Harris lives down the block. People are going down south to Florida, Alabama, Baltimore.”
The poll surveyed 1,216 registered voters between March 13 and 18. City-specific questions had a margin of error of about 7 points.
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