"Home equity … you can look at as the profit that people have in their homes," explains Dr. Walden, an economist with North Carolina Cooperative Extension. "It’s the the difference between the value of their home and what they owe on their mortgage. And at the height of the housing boom two to four years ago, homeowners were borrowing against that home equity to the tune of 8 percent annually as a percent of their income. So it was like an 8 percent income boost.

"And that provided a big jump in consumer spending power. Now as the housing market nationally -- not so much here in North Carolina -- but nationally has gone through some trials and tribulations recently, we have seen home equity become much softer because we are not getting those big boosts in housing values.

"And therefore borrowing by homeowners against their equity has gone down," Walden says. "In fact it has gone now to 2 percent of income.

"And some economists are looking for this to put a drag on consumer spending this year. Others say, no, that the continuing good job market is going to fuel consumer spending.

"So we are going to have to wait," Walden concludes, "for the coming months to see who’s actually right on this question."