Right there with you, I've wanted to leave here for so long because for what it costs to live here, it isn't worth it in the slightest. There is also no sign of it getting any better any time soon and there is very little available up in Cayuga county or surrounding rural areas. A lot of people I know just threw in the towel and decided to stay, but moved to Elmira, or Big Flats and now make long expensive commutes just to work here for the day and leave. I always say this, unless you are lucky enough to be working in a high paying Cornell/IC/BW job that you can only get here, there is no point in staying. The only real culture of Ithaca seems to revolve around education, which is funny, because a lot of locals don't like Cornell or how it treats the area and outside of that, it's saying "we have waterfalls" as if NY state's only waterfalls are here. This is turning into a rant, but I once told someone here that I'm from Buffalo and they said "you must like being able to see nature and waterfalls here", forgetting I guess, that Niagara Falls is down the road from Buffalo.