Buying the median home in Albany means financing $220,000. Against the area's $55,000 median household income, that works out to a 4.0x price-to-income ratio.
Factor in $440/month for property tax in Albany, based on the area's 2.4% effective rate applied to the median home price. That's $5,280 annually.
New York levies a state income tax on top of the $1,672/month this mortgage runs. Model your real after-tax take-home before deciding how much payment you can carry.
Albany's cost of living index is 96, below the 100 national baseline. That's on top of the housing numbers above, not instead of them.
Albany's median home price runs 71% lower than nearby New York City: $750,000 there versus $220,000 here.