[Brad C.]

I have heard that it was just booming up there now, but no one could tell me why. Some said it was the extra military being stationed there, others said that it was in prep for the gas line that may or may not get built.

It's really kind of funny for me. When I left the real estate market was rather slow, and it was EXPLODING here in Florida, and now the markets have reveresed in both locations.

It will be some time before any one could call Fairbanks a big city. While other cities with a 50K population might be considered large, most are surrounded by other towns with nothing to distinguish it from it's neighbors. Where as Fairbanks stands alone, all by itself in the wilderness. Unless you consider the sprawling metropolis of North Pole (grin)

[RightWhale]

Officially the Borough is 85,000. The City of Fairbanks is just a dot on the map of the Borough. NP is another dot towards the bottom edge of the map. Anticipation of the gas pipeline is no doubt a big part of the hustle and bustle. The military buildup as the focus changes toward the Pacific is also a big part of it. A lot of it is simply the ancient American tradition of moving to a hot economic zone and selling out a couple years later. If you left two years ago you have missed a fundamental change in the activity level. It runs around the clock, no time off winter or summer. People used to be home more or less by 9 PM. Now they roll in 6 AM. I heard someone last spring describe Fairbanks as crazy insane, and no one seems to seriously deny that now.