Earlier this month, the agency got Federal permission to designate certain high-cost regions, like New York City and its suburbs, as specially targeted zones.

The high-cost regions are all five boroughs of New York City, Rockland, Westchester and Putnam Counties.

The difference in spending is almost entirely due to the way medicine is practiced in high-cost regions.

The move is expected to reduce costs for utilities in high-cost regions, like the Northeast, by allowing them to buy cheaper power from the Midwest.

Another solution for affordable housing in high-cost regions is state-sponsored programs to assist first-time buyers in saving down payments for their homes.

Until the late 1980's, military contractors stayed pretty much in place, serving as a bulwark in high-cost regions that lost other manufacturers.

The rise in the software business has brought sharply higher pay in the high-cost region.

It underestimates poverty in high-cost regions like New York because it takes no account of huge outlays families must make for housing.

"We're in such a high-cost region," said Jim Morgo, commissioner of economic development and work force housing in Suffolk County.

In these high-cost regions, the Government automatically dishes out more money to private plans.