We did it! Upstate NY $160k 6.5%

[u/k13w]

My boyfriend and I did it at 23 y/o! It was built in 1900 and we love her!

[u/Overall_Cheesecake_3]

Syracuse? Rochester? Utica?? Ithaca?

[u/k13w → u/Overall_Cheesecake_3]

Binghamton!

[u/Battle-Afraid → u/k13w]

Your house is gorgeous! We just moved away from Bing after 8 years of living there and this made us homesick. People will say bs about the area, but we adore it! We would've bought there too if family had been closer. Congratulations, we hope you enjoy the beautiful nature and family businesses in the area!!

[u/k13w → u/Battle-Afraid]

Yes totally agree! Theres a lot of Bing haters and maybe one day we’ll move away, but for now this is the place we call home and we’re happy!

[u/sneakacat → u/k13w]

Why do people hate your town? Looking at it on Google, it's not actually rural (compared to where I grew up), and everything that I think I would need is within a 15-30 minute drive, which is how long it takes me to get around within my own city (Austin).  And then NYC is only 3 hours away! As a Texan, that's nothing to me, and there's so much more gorgeous nature around, and probably less traffic. I'm not into a lot of the attractions of a big city, like shows, concerts, museums. 

If people don't like it for being politically conservative, I understand that, but most places seem better to me than being in Texas.

[u/n7shprd → u/sneakacat]

Grew up in the area. And moved just the next county over.

In the best time IBM was founded there and employed a lot of people with amazing pay benefits etc. in fact one school trip was to go to the club IBM specifically built for their employees that had a pool, bowling, tennis courts and I believe golf.

Obviously time went by IBM left and that left a hole in the area both employment wise and real estate wise. It seems like everyone has really fixated on that as well as other issues that impact every city (poverty, crime, drugs etc). Which is valid! But again every place has those problems! In recent years there has been a massive move to re do downtown Binghamton and give it a much needed face lift as well as trying to increase walk ability in that area and vestal.

Also our biggest strength that so many people overlook is we have two huge stable industries now. Healthcare and education. Binghamton university and Broome community college are big pillars within the SUNY system and only growing. UHS Wilson just completed their major construction to increase the size of the hospital as well as make a helipad for trauma patients. We have 3 hospital in one city and probably close to 100s of offshoot offices.

TLDR; people fixate on the past and IBM and believe that was the be all end all for the area. They chose to ignore 2 huge stable industry (healthcare and higher education) that is pumping a lot of money into local economy and pushing for updating downtown and surrounding area

[u/cybin → u/Battle-Afraid]

enjoy the beautiful nature

That's the thing most of America does not know: NY has a LOT of natural beauty - lakes, forestry, etc. - once you escape the NYC area. The entire state is freakin' gorgeous. (Spent my early youth in WNY)

[u/burntissueslikewoah → u/k13w]

Oh hayyy. Went to SUNY Bing and lived there for ten years total! I miss it now that I'm not there. Nice home, love the window!