Housing prices in places like Charleston SC have fouled, even tripled in the last few years. Good luck finding anything, if you can even find a home, for under 1 million. And in the Cgarejstin area, they are building everywhere. It’s the same everywhere except NY, SF, and LA.
Actually, real estate prices and rents have been increasing substantially in NY and it’s suburbs and said areas were pricey already - it’s just that there is nowhere to build anymore barring changes in zoning.
Yes, there are places now in central and western NY that are a big discount to other places in the northeastern US.
This is similar to places in coal country. I suspect you can buy a house in parts of PA, KY, WV quite a bit under the national average because many of the coal mines have shut down.