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Wondering what the roads are like in winter. Is it realistic or not to live up to 40 minutes outside of Ithaca and commute into town for work?? Just what are the roads like??
You'd be living 40 minutes outside of Ithaca, in good weather? I think you'd need a VERY good 4x4 (not awd), an iron grip, strong stomach, great cell phone reception and be willing to leave up to 2 hours before you need to be there.
I live in the Syracuse area and am just 47 minutes from Ithaca. I guess I'm wondering why on earth you'd have to drive from so far away to live if you'd be working in Ithaca? Surely there must be a metro area closer? If you're 40 minutes from Syracuse, I don't think it would be much of a problem, as long as you stay north of Tully. But Ithaca? I don't have the same complete confidence in their snow removal skills... Syracuse wins national awards and its crew is regularly sent to Alaska to show them how to most efficiently remove snow. The area surrounding Ithaca is hilly and rural and 40 minutes of winding, mediocre roads sounds like more than I'd *personally* be willing to undertake. That said, I love Ithaca and it's the one other place in NY state that I'd consider moving to, realistically. I just wouldn't live further than 20 minutes from it.
Thanks for the input. The situation is that we want to be able buy a few acres of land to live on but my wife has a job op. in ithaca. From looking on the internet it seems like most places with a few acres in our price range (aroun 200k) are between 35-50 minutes outside of ithaca.
Are we being unrealistic? Perhaps looking in the wrong areas?? We really want a few acres so this could highly impact our decision. thanks.
What about the idea of living somewhere like cortland and commuting to syracuse for work? That would still give us access to Ithaca correct? or same scenario with the roads??
Cortland is exactly between the two and yes, a very good option. Not IN Cortland, mind you, but something outside of it. I'd start looking in Homer- it's right off I-81 (straight shot up to Syracuse) and is right en route to Ithaca.
Village of Homer, NY The zip is 13077. You should have absolutely NO issue with finding a beautiful home with much more than a few acres for $200K or less.
Cortland is exactly between the two and yes, a very good option. Not IN Cortland, mind you, but something outside of it. I'd start looking in Homer- it's right off I-81 (straight shot up to Syracuse) and is right en route to Ithaca.
Village of Homer, NY The zip is 13077. You should have absolutely NO issue with finding a beautiful home with much more than a few acres for $200K or less.
Is that a reasonable commute in winter though? To either place??
Cortland is exactly between the two and yes, a very good option. Not IN Cortland, mind you, but something outside of it. I'd start looking in Homer- it's right off I-81 (straight shot up to Syracuse) and is right en route to Ithaca.
Village of Homer, NY The zip is 13077. You should have absolutely NO issue with finding a beautiful home with much more than a few acres for $200K or less.
Is that a reasonable commute in winter though?? to either place?? Are there outdoor rec. oppurtunities near by?? Is it as pretty as Ithaca???
Is that a reasonable commute in winter though?? to either place?? Are there outdoor rec. oppurtunities near by?? Is it as pretty as Ithaca???
Thanks again.
It's exactly between the two cities.
It's the same "rolling hills" landscape, yes.
You're within half an hour of at least 4 ski resorts and who knows what else... this is a huge outdoorsy area in general. The entire area. The Jets also use SUNY Cortland right down the road as their training facility.
I spent a good bit of my life commuting from one or another location in the McLean or Cortland area to any and sometimes all of as far out as Baldwinsville, Ithaca, and Vestal. At no time during that period was I prosperous enough to have 4wd so it's scarcely a necessity - if you have a head on your shoulders while driving. 3 times in 12 years I had to get towed out of snowbanks, but I was also younger then in those days before ABS brakes.
Generally the deeper more constant snows tail off with distance from the Great Lakes but you do get mini-snow belts with each step in increase in elevation. The less common nor'easters do tend to dump heavier to the south and east, but on average even Binghamton's hilltop airport is far less snowy than Syracuse's northside edge-of-lake-plain airport.
Compared to even Pennsylvania, south-central NY is pretty generous with the "road condiments" - salt is mined just north of Ithaca under Cayuga Lake so there's an ample local supply. After all, the highest per-value property taxes in the country need to go towards something.
Here are a couple of examples of localized snow traps:
-NY 13 between Cortland and Dryden is open to the northwest and even though it's often plowed, in real bad conditions it can get dicey. An alternative is NY 366/Fall Creek Rd/McLean Rd which is lower elevation and actually shorter for going between Cortland and Ithaca.
-South Cortland-Virgil Rd is notorious for blowing shut but NY 215 is an alternative for traversing the hills south of Cortland.
If you throw out a few addresses of what you're looking at I might even be able to add to this list accordingly.
Cortland is exactly between the two and yes, a very good option. Not IN Cortland, mind you, but something outside of it. I'd start looking in Homer- it's right off I-81 (straight shot up to Syracuse) and is right en route to Ithaca.
The Cortland 13045 zip code actually extends out into extreme NE Tompkins and SE Cayuga counties, and out past the Greek Peak resort area - most of the Town of Virgil has a Cortland address. There's much territory with a Cortland address but in Homer schools, or even Groton or Dryden schools. Homer schools are considered better than Cortland schools but I don't know specifically why.
There are sad little pockets of poverty for sure in south-central NY, but it varies more road-by-road than zip code by zip code.
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