Hacker News Reader

Comment by yolobey | Hacker News Reader

I was just surprised at how cheap housing was in Syracuse. Maybe it's time to buy before interest rates get even worse.

It's cheap because it's an awful place to live. You can work in insurance, or hospitality, or for terrible wages in "tech", aka making CRUD apps or doing IT for the aforementioned industries. State taxes are super high and a huge burden. The weather is awful for all but 1-2 weeks in the spring and 1-2 weeks in the fall (hot and humid in the summer, extremely cold and windy in the winter). Schools are generally terrible.

There's a reason housing is cheap and there is a net population outflow out of NYS.

I can’t speak to Syracuse itself, but some of the suburban areas around Syracuse are pretty nice and have very good schools. For example, Fayetteville-Manlius High School is ranked #807 in the entire US: https://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/new-york/...

My wife is from the area and I’ve been there dozens of times. It’s not as happening as a major city, but if you wanted to live in an affordable suburb outside a large-enough city, it would be a fine place to live.

As a parent of kids in the FM district (and an FM graduate myself), it is indeed a fantastic district for most kids. If your kids need any sort of supporting services though, there are much better options in the area. FM fights pretty hard to avoid providing any kind of services.

That being said, there is a _lot_ of privilege in my complaint here. There are plenty of schools in less affluent areas where the idea of even requesting services would be laughable; there just aren't the resources to provide them. FM is frustrating because it _has_ the money, but fights hard to avoid using it.

You didn’t even mention the weather which in my opinion is the worst part of living that far north.

> The weather is awful for all but 1-2 weeks in the spring and 1-2 weeks in the fall (hot and humid in the summer, extremely cold and windy in the winter).

I did. It's less about how far north, and a lot to do with the lake effect snow the area gets.

Personally, the weather variety is one of the things I _like_ about the Syracuse area. I get bored very quickly when I have to spend time in places like California (or the southwest in general).

Then it might actually work out. I bitterly hate the cold and my ideal of perfect weather is the stereotypical warm and dry with the odd shower.

It's worked out for the last ~20 years for me...

It’s an interesting area. It has the opportunity to really bloom but has a couple issues. Climate sucks, it’s cold even for Northeastern standards. The cities all have urban issues like crime, not many upstate cities have really become cute and desirable. That’s mostly the smaller or mid sized towns.

I grew up nearby. Being just downwind of Lake Ontario, Syracuse gets 10 feet of snow per winter. [0] If you're susceptible to seasonal depression, it's a rough place to live. Just 50 miles south (around Ithaca / Elmira / Binghamton), the winters get milder, still dark but less cold and snow.

For decades, the region has wanted for STEM employment opportunities. (It's the rust belt, a lot of industry moved away.) I get the impression Rochester weathered it better than Syracuse, even after the downfall of Kodak. Rochester feels a little more vibrant to visit. That said, to the extent Micron is willing to train people, I imagine they'll have an easier time hiring in Syracuse than a lot of other places.

[0] https://nyskiblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/ncdc-ny-sno...

As a reference, Boston averages 60 inches, which would put it at the lowest scale on this map. So, even the milder regions are still quite cold and snowy!

Reply on news.ycombinator.com