Nestled in New York’s hilly Southern Tier region near the Pennsylvania border is the city of Binghamton. You’ll find it in a bowl-shaped valley at the confluence of the Susquehanna and Chenango Rivers. Here’s basically everything you need to know before you find yourself a room for rent in Binghamton!

Getting to know Binghamton

Binghamton is the principal city and cultural center of the Binghamton metropolitan area (also known as Greater Binghamton, or historically the Triple Cities). It is currently home to a quarter-million people. Binghamton, like all of the Southern Tier of New York, lies on the Allegheny Plateau, hence its hilly terrain. Additionally, in the center of the city, the Chenango River feeds into the Susquehanna from the north at Confluence Park.

Similarly, the Binghamton River Trail is a 1.5-mile trail along the Chenango. It specifically runs between Cheri Lindsey Park on the Northside and Confluence Park Downtown.

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The city was the traditional economic center of the region and is home to several historic districts. Additionally, the Railroad Terminal Historic District consists of several factories. It also includes buildings along the railroad line in the northern limits of downtown. Today, while there is a continued concentration of high-tech firms, Binghamton is emerging as healthcare. But that’s not all, it’s also an education-focused city, with Binghamton University acting as much of the driving force behind this revitalization.

Finding rooms for rent in Binghamton

Finding rooms for rent in Binghamton is fairly easy if you’re looking online, especially through apps and services that cater to personalized needs, like Roomi. With Binghamton, over 1,000 properties on the West Side contribute to the Abel Bennett Tract Historic District, mainly made up of residential properties along Riverside Drive.

Away from downtown, most of the buildings are single- and multi-family dwellings, along with low-rise business buildings lining commercial arteries. Along the railroad corridors, several factories, mostly abandoned, rise above the otherwise-uniform landscape.

Top neighborhoods in Binghamton

Downtown Binghamton

Downtown Binghamton known as Center City is home to most of the city’s largest buildings and government services. Located at the northeast cFind orner of the river confluence and increasingly populated by college students. It also supports a flourishing arts scene!

The First Ward

This one’s a largely residential neighborhood opposite the railroad tracks from the West Side, is best known for Antique Row, a series of antique shops that line Clinton Street. This part of the city is home to several gold-domed Christian churches built by the area’s many Eastern European immigrants. It is also home to several large supermarkets, churches, pharmacies, bank branches, a few bars and restaurants as well as mom and pop shops that provide such goods as video games and music.

The West Side

Across the Chenango River lies the West Side, a primarily residential neighborhood along the banks of the Susquehanna that has a combination of family homes, student housing, and stately mansions. This is a very attractive location for those looking to rent a room in Binghamton since Main Street’s large supermarkets, pharmacies, bank branches, pubs, restaurants, auto shops, and a few strip malls form the West Side’s commercial corridor — that you’ll find here.

Average rent in Binghamton

To put it quite simply, the average cost of living in Binghamton is 3.27% higher than the national average. This means, finding a room to rent in Binghamton will also be influenced by this. Here is the average rent in Binghamton.

Rooms for rent in Binghamton	Average Rent
1 Bedroom Apartment in Binghamton	$512
2 Bedroom Apartment in Binghamton	$900

University life in Binghamton

Vestal, a suburb close to Binghamton is home to the Binghamton University. The university, one of four university centers in the SUNY system, has approximately 15,000 students. Binghamton University is a selective top-ranking public university and is considered to be a Public Ivy. It also has a large research presence, including a New York State Center of Excellence for small-scale systems integration. While the campus is in Vestal, many students who live off-campus find housing in the West Side. There has also been a recent push for student housing downtown to help revitalize the business district.

The top colleges in the Binghamton Area include the following:

• Binghamton University
• SUNY Broome Community College
• Davis College
• Elmira Business Institute – Vestal Campus
• Empire State College: State University of New York

How Transit Friendly is Binghamton?

Broome County Transit, popularly branded as B.C. Transit, is the public transportation system serving Broome County, New York, which includes the city of Binghamton and surrounding communities.

Walkability in Binghamton

With a walk score of 85, Binghamton, NY is a very walkable city. In an interview in 2020, the Mayor of the city was quoted saying the following: “Walkable neighborhoods are at the core of Binghamton’s infrastructure investments every year,” said Mayor David.

There are also multiple pedestrian infrastructure projects that have been taken up by the government, that they expect to complete by the end of 2021.

Roads and traffic in Binghamton

Binghamton is a major junction in the Interstate Highway System, much as it was during the days of the railroad. Interstate 81, a major north-south route, connects the city to Syracuse and Ontario, as well as to Pennsylvania and Appalachia. Binghamton is also the western terminus of Interstate 88, which gives a direct route to Albany. New York State Route 17, the Southern Tier Expressway, is being upgraded to Interstate 86, and spans the southern border of New York, providing access to New York City, as well as to the western Southern Tier and Erie, Pennsylvania.

Taxis and ZipCar in Binghamton

Zipcar, the world’s leading car-sharing service, allows members to reserve self-service, on-demand cars for an hourly or day rate.

Public Transport in Binghamton

The city of Binghamton has the same public transport service as all of Broome County. Broome County (BC) Transit provides transit service to students at no additional cost with the swipe of their University ID, as the transportation fee is included in tuition. The bus service has GPS tracking devices linked to applications that display where the buses are at all times and how far they are from any given stop location. But beyond the main bus service, here are some of the other options available to the public.

GotchaBike in Binghamton

GotchaBike is a bike share and technology company, to bring 30 GPS-enabled bikes to campus. These bikes are spread out in four locations on the main campus of Binghamton university if students are interested. Bikes may be reserved at no charge for two hours a day and for $5 an hour after the two-hour time period.

Railroad and freight in Binghamton

Three freight railroads serve Binghamton. Norfolk Southern Railway serves Binghamton with its Southern Tier Main Line (the former Erie Lackawanna mainline) and on the mainline between Albany and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania (formerly the Delaware and Hudson Railway). The New York, Susquehanna, and Western Railway maintains lines from Binghamton to Syracuse and Utica, and the Central New York Railroad offers freight service to Port Jervis. Binghamton has no railroad passenger service.

Airport in Binghamton

The nearest airport to Binghamton is Binghamton (BGM) Airport which is 8.3 miles away. Other nearby airports include Scranton/Wilkes-Barre (AVP) (53.8 miles), Syracuse (SYR) (71.3 miles), Rochester (ROC) (114.5 miles) and Albany (ALB) (117.1 miles).

Population in Binghamton

Until the mid-1950s, Binghamton saw its population grow rapidly due to its industrial boom, and it was one of the largest 100 cities in the United States between 1890 and 1910. Since 1950, the city has sustained population loss, some of which was the result of suburbanization. Much of the recent population loss has occurred throughout the region and is skewed toward the younger population, resulting in the growth of the relative proportion of the elderly in Broome County.

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Art and culture in Binghamton

With a significant amount of schools around the city, rooms for rent in Binghamton have also seen an increase in rent. This, however, has also contributed to another factor. The region has, in the last several years, developed a growing and pervasive arts scene. These include a large cluster of art galleries and shops centered around downtown Binghamton. These galleries have given rise to the First Friday Art Walk, through the efforts of an association of local artists and merchants in Downtown Binghamton. These events have drawn large crowds downtown since 2004. Artists of local prominence that display or have galleries include photorealist painter Anthony Brunelli, Orazio Salati, and Marla Olmstead, a local child who achieved fame in the art world for her abstract art.

But that’s not all! There is also The Roberson Museum and Science Center, in the heart of Binghamton, which is home to the Binghamton Visitor’s Center, the Link Planetarium, and a number of exhibits detailing the culture and history of Greater Binghamton and the Southern Tier.