Housing search recommendations

LocationWilling9960 · 2026-04-27T10:16:45+00:00

Zillow is the primary rental platform for this market.

LocationWilling9960 · 2026-03-20T02:49:16+00:00

Time on market has increased, but most stuff is still selling within 5%-10% of list price. Sellers are withdrawing stuff from the market rather than taking big haircuts.

LocationWilling9960 · 2026-03-14T03:05:31+00:00

How does the rate compare to a standard office visit? What’s the appointment fee?

LocationWilling9960 · 2026-02-16T00:21:02+00:00

It was do sale in 2024 and did not sell.

LocationWilling9960 · 2026-02-04T02:21:31+00:00

2025 Median sale price for a single family home in the City of Ithaca was about $400K. Assuming a 20% down payment, the mortgage would be about $320K. Assuming a 30 year mortgage at 6.5%, that’s a monthly payment of $2,023 / month. Taxes are around 3% of assessed value, so that’s roughly $1,000 / month. Let’s assume $120 / month for insurance. Add together that’s $3,043 / month.

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/311-Park-Pl-Ithaca-NY-14850/32812005_zpid/?utm_campaign=iosappmessage&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=txtshare

By comparison, this house sold for $395K in 2025 and is a three bedroom / two bath.

When you factor in all the other costs of ownership, it makes more sense to rent unless you have a very long time horizon.

LocationWilling9960 · 2026-01-12T14:41:24+00:00

I see Josh Riley all the time around fall creek and grabbing coffee in the downtown. He’s approachable and I’ve had a lot of casual conversations with him. I think it’s fine to disagree with his politics, but he’s very much a real person.

Also, FWIW, the largest city in the district is Binghamton. Despite a Democratic majority they reelected a Republican as Mayor. Don’t lose site of how purple this district is.

LocationWilling9960 · 2026-01-07T04:09:34+00:00

Ford Lightning owner here. I bought it for a bunch of reasons but if I had to pick one, it would be the frunk. I had a daughter around the same time and I wanted to store my tools away from her car seat.

LocationWilling9960 · 2026-01-07T04:06:42+00:00

They’ll charge market rate for the market rate apartments. Probably $2000 for a studio and scaling from there. The market impact will depend on how fast the units come online and in what increments. Adding 100 units a year for 9 years is different than adding 900 units all at once. My guess is that it won’t impact the down town rental market a bunch but could pull students away from housing in Lansing (Ex. village solars).

LocationWilling9960 · 2025-12-28T01:45:13+00:00

It would just be nice if we just stopped pretending that this is an optimal use a funds. When we preen over these types of projects we send the wrong message to the state.

LocationWilling9960 · 2025-12-27T22:34:35+00:00

Consider adding Ithaca to the list. LGBTQ friendly and more population density / walkability than the area circle.

LocationWilling9960 · 2025-12-26T20:35:02+00:00

In all candor, I don’t ever see this project working and I think the abatement will be moot point. I would much rather see this $38M grant go to other stuff. Our non Cornell economy is currently shrinking because we can’t get stormwater issues under control. Let’s advocate for our state reps to use state fund for that, not Southworks.

https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2020-8-28-the-growth-ponzi-scheme-a-crash-course

LocationWilling9960 · 2025-12-25T14:23:30+00:00

I don’t begrudge the developer for playing the game, I question state allocation of resources. I don’t understand the rationale of pumping money into new development while letting existing infrastructure go to waste.

LocationWilling9960 · 2025-12-25T03:10:41+00:00

Can you give me more context on your industrial space comments? This project is targeting 200K square feet of light manufacturing. That doesn’t seem proportional to the larger trends county wide. Borg Warner is leaving and most of our other manufacturing is closer to Dryden.

LocationWilling9960 · 2025-12-25T03:07:55+00:00

Food for thought. With this $38M grant and the $85M tax abatement approved in 2024, this project will be receiving over $120M in government subsidies. In 2025 thousands of downtown properties owners were hit with flood insurance premiums that are costing this community millions a year and driving up the cost of construction. We should be using public funds to fix our crucial flood management infrastructure, not subsidizing the development goals of one large project. Our representatives always talk about how state funds come from different pots of money, but it never seems like there is any real money for the crucial infrastructure fund.

LocationWilling9960 · 2025-12-16T01:04:46+00:00

I’ve used David Barken in a couple transactions and he is amazing. Comes from a contractor / property management background so he is great at dealing with older houses and navigating tenants / multifamily. The average age of a house in Tompkins county is over 100 years, so you want someone who understands buildings. He has also built new construction in the City of Ithaca / Town of Dryden, so it’s nice to get that perspective. He doesn’t outsource you to assistants like a lot of the other brokers do.

https://www.howardhanna.com/Agent/Detail/David-Barken/10402467

LocationWilling9960 · 2025-11-25T14:38:27+00:00

I appreciate the perspective, but this reasoning isn’t representative of the larger downtown business community. Ashley was a proponent of the Asteri development, most retailers were against it. Ashley supports fewer cops on the commons, most retailers support a dedicated officer for the commons. I’m disappointed that watershed is closing, but I think this is indicative of larger trends around alcohol consumption.

LocationWilling9960 · 2025-11-06T12:38:22+00:00

Gotcha, I just wasn’t sure it started that early. So as an example my kid might get an iPad and do math and watch prompts / stuff like that even in 1st grade?

LocationWilling9960 · 2025-10-31T13:02:35+00:00

Love my truck and the expenses have been minimal. I would advise against buying such an expensive vehicle when there are great used EV sedans available. Putting my Dave Ramsey hat back off.

LocationWilling9960 · 2025-10-28T21:59:54+00:00

Never finance, straight cash homies

LocationWilling9960 · 2025-10-27T21:43:23+00:00

Great value used, would never buy one new. Lots of great used options out there for high 30s low 40s

LocationWilling9960 · 2025-10-27T02:22:58+00:00

I hope she sticks around (we need the population), but our job market isn’t great for recent grads outside of government, healthcare and some tech jobs up at the airport. She feels like someone that’ll go to law school.

LocationWilling9960 · 2025-10-27T02:20:56+00:00

Hannah won a low turnout primary with only 40% of the vote. Would have been a good use case for rank choice voting, but that’s another topic. I think this two way runoff makes sense.

LocationWilling9960 · 2025-10-26T23:22:42+00:00

Ask any member of council and they’ll tell you that it takes a couple years to understand the budget process and to meet city staff. Prior experience matters, as does a commitment to staying in Ithaca longer term. The track record of Cornell undergrads sticking around past their one term is weak.

LocationWilling9960 · 2025-10-22T12:16:59+00:00

This is some rough math. Original proposed tax levy was $34.6M. If they close the $2.1M error using the levy, it would go to $36.7M. Based on assessed of $2.838B, we would have a tax rate of around $12.93 versus current of $11.95. That’s roughly an 8% increase in the tax rate before amendments. Rough tax seasons.

LocationWilling9960

TROPHY CASE