Thailand can be divided into tourist areas/cities and the rural areas.
Prices in the tourist areas are as much as 3X+ the price of the rural areas.
Tourist areas offer all kinds of entertainment, whereas rural areas often have nothing to do.
The Islands, Bangkok, Pattaya, Chiang Mai, and Phuket are some of the areas that cater to foreign tourists.
All of these locations have cool attractions, nice resorts, day trips and evening entertainment.
Rural areas have local restaurants as the only real attraction.
Many foreigners have stated that rural Thailand is just too boring for them.
Instead of having lots of land, vegetable gardens, fruit trees or even a fish pond, they will prefer to live in a small condo in areas where there are plenty of bars and nightly entertainment.
It really all depends of why the foreigner came to Thailand and what kind of lifestyle they were looking for.
For those looking to stretch their budget as far as possible, everything in rural Thailand is cheaper. Everything. It is as close to normal living as your own country.
However, many foreigners come to Thailand for the wild nightlife and entertainment and prefer that life.
Over the long term, I believe the rural life is more cost effective and peaceful. Very conducive to family living and rural people are just so much friendlier.
Condo life might be ok for single mongers but now sure how many Thai women want to spend the rest of their life in a small condo. This can cause many relationship issues.
If you want a real normal life living in Thailand, rural life is the only way.
You can always visit the tourist areas if you ever get that bored.