Living in The North Country & Adirondacks

New York's North Country -- the state's northernmost region, spanning the Adirondacks and the St. Lawrence River Valley along the Canadian border -- is anchored by Watertown, home to Fort Drum and the 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry), whose total base population exceeds 30,000 and whose regional economic impact runs $2.2-2.55 billion annually, making it the clearest military-relocation market in this state's entire coverage. Plattsburgh sits directly on Lake Champlain a real, verified one-hour drive from Montreal, anchored by SUNY Plattsburgh and a genuine manufacturing base, while Lake Placid and Saranac Lake -- neighboring Adirondack villages with genuinely distinct identities -- carry, respectively, a two-time Winter Olympics host legacy (1932, 1980) with the region's highest housing costs, and a quieter, historic tuberculosis-treatment 'cure cottage' heritage still connected today to the active Trudeau Institute biomedical research center. Massena (home to the world's longest continuously operating aluminum smelter, adjacent to the sovereign Akwesasne Mohawk Nation), Ogdensburg (the only US port directly on the St. Lawrence Seaway), and Malone (the Franklin County seat, directly on the Canadian border) round out the region's genuine cross-border, US-Canada character. Housing runs dramatically affordable region-wide -- Malone's typical home value ($163,545) is among the lowest documented anywhere in this state's coverage -- and this region carries some of the coldest, snowiest winters in the entire state.

Explore The North Country & Adirondacks in depth

• Cost of Living & Housing in The North Country & Adirondacks
• Best Places to Live in The North Country & Adirondacks
• Moving to The North Country & Adirondacks
• Climate & Lifestyle in The North Country & Adirondacks

Places we've researched in The North Country & Adirondacks

• Watertown -- Jefferson County
• Plattsburgh -- Clinton County
• Lake Placid -- Essex County
• Saranac Lake -- Franklin County
• Massena -- St. Lawrence County
• Ogdensburg -- St. Lawrence County
• Malone -- Franklin County