Love your thinking, Jessie! The thing about high cost-of-living places too is that they grant residents access to opportunities they would never have found elsewhere.

I remember reading about a guy who made good money from his obscure hobby. He opened a shop selling sand from around the world for model train enthusiasts. The shop was in Tokyo. I recall thinking that a densely-populated city with high income earners was possibly the only place a business model like that would work.