Now I know people travel and have visitors and I can't for sure say some of that wasn't use but I am tracking closely after each improvement/repair water use is decreasing.  

The value of the US dollar has decreased by 95% over the last 100 years.  

It will lower your payment and decrease interest over the loan (awesome), but you may be able to make better use of your money elsewhere and make more money (also awesome).

And I haven't seen rents ever decrease in this area due to economic downturns.

This will be a great stepping stone into real estate while also decreasing your living expenses and allow you to pay down debt and save up for the next property even quicker.2) You have a great start on your "big plan", but figure out what you truly want.

Crime is decreasing there.

Also likely that the payment decreases a little in your favor.3.

Our market has seen a ton of growth lately, and with that has come with a significant increase in pricing and decrease in returns.

That’s a significant amount of time for the value of that $1.5 million to decrease.

Not to take anything away from you, but you know the prices of real estate (especially in NY), so I know it may not seem like much, but I think you've overcome the most difficult obstacle and that is going from 0-1.The way I see NY is that it does not meet any basic requirements for investing: it has low cap rates, high taxes, stagnant or decreasing population, anti-landlord laws/sentiment, rules & regulations etc, etc.