With all the "Hoop Madness" going on - you might think of BASKETBALL!!   And we love our basketball here in NC!! 

But recently we were named the FASTEST growing area in the COUNTRY!  "Raleigh, and its Cary suburb (where I live) make up the fastest growing metropolitan area in the country, according to federal statistics released last Thursday!"

The FASTEST GROWING!  WOW!

My mom was an agent - and as kids, we routinely listened to her "speech."  Today, we might call it the "elevator" speech, but my mom is also from the south - and there's NO WAY you could've heard the whole thing on an elevator ride in three floors!  The essence of her speech to those considering moving to this area was this:

"We are in the middle of the State's Government.  We are also in the center of one of the largest group of PHD's in the Country- since they teach at the more than 20 colleges and Universities that lie within 45 minutes of my house.  There are 2 major teaching hospitals (UNC and Duke) that bring in people from all over the world for complex proceedures - and just with that base of employment alone - we are almost recession proof... In addition to that, my house is about 15 minutes away from the Research Triangle Park. 

The Park was chartered to do RESEARCH, and draws off of the brightest minds at the Universites that surround it.  Interenational and US based Companies love to base their Research Units here - because of the "Brain Trust"... but more importantly because of the TAX advantages! 

We then have the manufacturing facilites for those research projects dotted all around the Triangle -and because we are not just focused on IBM, or telecom, and we're not just focused on "drugs" (pharmaceutical companies) ... we're pretty well recession proof.  It's kinda' boring economics - and we haven't had the 10% to 15% annual appreciation in housing values, but it's a great place to live, work and grow a family.  That's why people like to be HERE!"

Plus, I might add, we're 2 hours from the beach and 2 hours from our mountains.  It's truly a wonderful area!  It certainly explains why we have not had the same problems most of the country has! 

So Ya'll Come On Down!!  We're happy to make new friends!