The cost of living is cheaper in the Poconos because the land is cheaper and the commute to work is longer. However, recent stories filtering back to NYC have the poconos turning into a ghetto.
I see those areas becoming similar to Prince George's County in Maryland or Dekalb in Georgia, with lower middle and middle class people of color becoming dominant, as affluent whites and, to a certain extent Asians, dominating the I-70/I-80/GS Parkway corridor suburbs in New Jersey.
Of course, a persistant issue in the northeast is the refusal of lower middle class whites to even tolerate a sprinkling of blacks or latinos in their communities. This is why resegregation takes place quickly out in blue collar suburbia/exurbia.
One reason the cost of living is cheaper in the Poconos is that those deals that sounded too good to be true turned out to be just that. The quality of construction of so many of those homes is absolute sh!t.