I wouldn't be surprised if the Albany metro (Albany, Schnectady, and Rensslaer Counties) area someday surpasses the Buffalo metro area in population. It has a very sound economic base in the 100,000+ well paid state government jobs located there plus it's three hours or less from NYC and Boston. Between RPI and UA, there's a very strong tech base there, and Albany Medical Center is a major health sciences teaching center associated with UA. It's attractive for back-office ops for NYC banks and other businesses because of the lower costs and ease of access.
I lived there for eleven years, and it's the one upstate area that continues to prosper (the actual metro area doesn't appear to be growing because it loses many suburbanites to Saratoga, Columbia, Schoharie, and Greene Counties). It is gorgeous country, somewhat wilder and less populated than WNY.
You can be in the Catskills or the southern Adirondaks in an hour from Colonie (Albany's version of Amherst). Saranac Lake and Lake Placid are day trips. NYC or Boston are day trips. Over-priced Vermont is thirty miles away (including the wonderful craft fair at Hildene in Bennington!).
Its biggest problem for me is that it wasn't "home". It's too white collar, and the people have more of that New England/East Coast "edge" than WNYers do. It's also a town totally consumed by state politics.
Oh, btw, for all you "downtown is the center of the universe" crowd, downtown Albany proves that having tens of thousands of jobs and thousands of residents in downtown isn't "the answer" to a city's problems. Downtown Albany has both, and they still roll-up the sidewalks about 6pm unless there's an event going on.