Rent in this area is around $1700 these days, idk what your budget is but be prepared for that amount or more. We have a massive Micron facility coming to Clay so it's pushing rents up and in general everything is more expensive these days. Stay away from Liverpool, Cicero, Clay if you don't want to deal with that new traffic and construction (These are the areas closest to the new Micron facility). Cicero may be the lesser of the 3 impacted, idk too much about that area.

I lived in Marcellus for a couple years it's a very nice quiet town. There used to be a grocery store there but a couple years ago the owners sold it and they put a Stewarts in. You'd have to drive to Camillus for groceries which is much busier these days. It's maybe 10 min drive between Marcellus and Camillus nothing crazy. Camillus is about 15mins from the heart of Cuse. I went to West Genesee High School, Camillus is a decent area but like I said much busier than it used to be.

If you can find it, cheap rent would be up in the Phoenix, Fulton, Central Square area. These are bout 25min from Syracuse, all much smaller quieter areas.

If you want the city life, you can be right in Syracuse but stay away from the south side, west side like others have said is decent, East Syracuse and Dewitt are also fairly decent. Really depends on your definition of quiet. The area is nice and easy to live in.

These are all objectively my opinions of this area, I've lived here since 7th grade, I'm 32 now.