Buying the median home in Syracuse means financing $165,000. Against the area's $42,000 median household income, that works out to a 3.9x price-to-income ratio.
Factor in $399/month for property tax in Syracuse, based on the area's 2.9% effective rate applied to the median home price. That's $4,785 annually.
New York levies a state income tax on top of the $1,323/month this mortgage runs. Model your real after-tax take-home before deciding how much payment you can carry.
Syracuse's cost of living index is 85, below the 100 national baseline. That's on top of the housing numbers above, not instead of them.
Syracuse's median home price runs 78% lower than nearby New York City: $750,000 there versus $165,000 here.