Question about Owner Occupied Investing

[Rebecca LeBrun]

My husband and I are interested in purchasing a multi-family home to live in.  The idea would be to purchase a 3-4 unit home, live in one of the units for free, and rent out the other units to cover the mortgage and all other expenses for the home.  My dilemma is our location. It's no secret that New York and New Jersey's cost of living is ridiculously high.  To live in a decent middle class area in Essex County New Jersey, the price for houses usually start at around the higher end of $400K and up.  I found some multi family homes for way less than that, but they're usually in sketchy neighborhoods that we would't feel comfortable living in. 

My question to the more expereinced investors on here is, do you think it's worth us going into that kind of investment being that the cost of living is so high? Do you know of any strategies that we can try to make this work despite the high priced homes?