That said, my preferred method is to live in a low cost area and work in a high cost area (telecommute).
yes but it also depends how you consider in your calculation the costs of telecommuting (costs of travelling, time lost etc..)
I'm thinking about this right in these days, as I'm living and working in a quite rich but expensive country (Luxembourg) where real estate prices (rent&purchase) have grown a lot in the past years, and are still growing (two digits increase of prices yty), while you have surrounding border areas (Belgium, France, Germany) that are way cheaper (half or even less per square meter) but are located 30-40km away with really congested roads or slow public lines (at least 45min per trip, easy to become 1-2hours in case of accidents or traffic jams)