Its because nobody has actually bought there since the 60’s so everyone has a lot of “equity” /sarc
I went to College in Rochester ... cannot imagine anyone moving there by choice, and I was there in the heyday of Xerox and Kodak. First year I was there the first snow fell on Sept 30. There was continuous snow on the ground until April.
I grew up near White Plains after I was born and we moved around upstate, Ithaca, Utica and Syracuse. I remember trick or treating in snowstorms many years. About 30 years after I moved to California I went to an interview at Corning in Corning, NY in April. They had a snowstorm when I was there on the interview and that clinched it! No way was I moving back to NYS. Right now it’s 60 degrees and sunny on the San Fran Peninsula.
The last time I visited the Syracuse area 20 years ago it looked so terribly run down and old.