"The construction and real estate sector together is huge. It's a big, big sector," says Dr. Walden, of North Carolina Cooperative Extension. "In most markets in North Carolina, that one sector accounts for close to 10 percent of economic activity. That's just directly. And it is one of the leading if not the leading industry in most markets in North Carolina.

"Now the impact, however, of construction and real estate goes wider; surely we are going to count for example, people working, building homes, and Realtors and so forth, but you are also going to have impacts on folks who do landscaping, painters, carpet installers, people in finance," he adds. "So the ripple effects, in you will, of the construction and real estate market go much wider than just that 10 percent.

"In terms of employment, I estimate that that market when you account for all the other folks involved supports about 300,000 jobs just in North Carolina," he concludes. "So if we are talking about a slowdown in the construction and real estate market, we can potentially see that slowdown work its way through the greater economy and really have a very massive impact. Again, I think that's why recently the Federal Reserve moved to lower interest rates in order to try to support this market."