Hey @nideaqui, I'm a current student at Cornell (not in English, though!). I've found that people's impressions of Ithaca housing market are rooted in where you're moving from. I'm from Silicon Valley so when I first visited Cornell people kept telling me 'oh, the housing prices are INSANE' and I was like 'you can rent a one bedroom apartment in downtown for the same price as a room in a house shared with 8 other people in my hometown' so ymmv. (Not an exaggeration, btw, and that cost is also an actually reasonable percentage of your budget based on what Cornell pays you. And my friends who moved here from NYC or London have similar stories!) For your first year talking to people at the open house is usually the best way to go, but you can find good places on Craigslist/FB Marketplace. Also current grad students are usually more than willing to do viewings/walkthroughs on your behalf.
Slightly related also but take undergrad impressions of grad life with a grain of salt! Most grad students I know at Cornell think exactly the opposite of what I've seen people saying in this thread: we think our undergrads are super isolated and have few social outlets, but I've literally never had a more active social life since starting grad school here. I honestly only know like...one or two people who are genuinely unhappy living in Ithaca, most people I know love it here. (I'm like 90% sure that the undergrads I teach think I'm a miserable shut in, though, haha!) In particular, the English Department Grad Student org has really been revived this year and has reportedly become a bit of a social hub for the department.
Good luck, and congrats!