Dr. Mike Walden, North Carolina Cooperative Extension economist in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at N.C. State University, responds:

"Well, if you look at this decade, states like Texas, Florida, Georgia and Arizona, they have all been the states that have grown most rapidly in population. But what's very interesting over the last year, looking at 2006 to 2007, is the rate of increase in population in all those states has slowed dramatically.

"In contrast, North Carolina, which has been among the top five fastest growing states, actually saw its population grow faster in 2006 and 2007. So we sort of catapulted ahead of fast-growing states, where as these other top growing states slowed down.

"So, of course, the next question is why? And I think a couple of things here. I think one is the good job market relatively in North Carolina. Our job base has been growing faster than the job base in other states. And secondly, the housing crunch. There's a lot of headlines about the housing crunch. The housing crunch simply hasn't hit our state as hard as it has other states. Therefore, I think more people have been attracted to come here."