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In my experience, even artists in places that are otherwise known for low comparatively wages still charge the same industry rates for game art as everywhere else.
The other problem is that you get weird results sometimes - I worked on a game that TurboSquid was making (doing gameplay code) and they were using some international art contractors - a few times we had characters come back with one giant arm, or a leg that was like 2 inches shorter than the other.
Personally, I’ve had completely different results. Guess that’s to be expected, though. As such, I’ll chalk it up to the artists you were working with. I find most to be very competitively priced.
In fact, there’s studios outsourcing the majority of their art to other countries. I recall Spicy Horse, of whom setup shop in Shanghai, China due to it.
Anyhow, as with anything - you’ll have to look around for reliable artists. I also find it best to have an agreement for payment in place, upon specific milestones, so that such problems with the modeling work doesn’t arrive 
Edit: It might be worth taking a look at such sites as Freelancer (or the like), if you’re working on a strict budget.