Take, for instance, the area's employment growth. Fried says this one indicator alone typifies just how fast and far the Mat-Su is going.

"Since 1990, employment grew at an 80 percent clip in the Mat-Su, and five thousand new jobs were created in the last decade," Fried said. "Compare that to the second-fastest growing economy in the state, Anchorage, which compiled a very healthy 24 percent growth, and you get the picture. That's the kind of growth that gets national attention."

Fried's statement rings true when you consider national retailers like Sears, Fred Meyer, and Wal-Mart all expanded or built within Wasilla's city limits in the last decade. Most of the Mat-Su area's employment growth has been in the service and retail sectors.

Interestingly enough, government has actually shrunk from representing 39 percent of the workforce in 1970 to 22 percent in 2002.

One economic sector that has soared in the Mat-Su valley is tourism. The best indicator for that sector is the amount of bed tax receipts that are collected by the Matanska-Susitna Borough. In 1993, the borough recorded about $72,000 from the bed tax; in 2001 the borough brought in $513,159.

Fried said the Valley's best economic indicator remains its population growth. "Between 1990 and 2002, Anchorage grew by about 19 percent. That's healthy growth," he said. "Meanwhile, Wasilla grew 57 percent, Palmer grew by 80 percent, and Houston grew by 84 percent. That's phenomenal growth."

There are some definite trends in Fried's analysis. The Mat-Su area continues to draw more and more Anchorage residents looking for a better bang for their housing bucks. That means the Valley has truly evolved into a borough of bedroom communities.

Fried estimates that as many as 37 percent of borough residents export their labor somewhere else. The majority of this labor force takes the hour-long commute to Anchorage in order to work in a more diversified workplace and then takes the hour-long trip back to a less costly home.

With the expansion of both the services and retail markets, more of the money Valley commuters earn in Anchorage is being spent in the communities where they live.

Fried notes that both Wasilla and Palmer have sales taxes. "Since 1993, the two cities have gone from collecting about $4.3 million to $10 million last year," he said. "That is more than double in less than ten years."

Road work continues

Another growing trend is the state's development and expansion of roads in the Mat-Su. The state Department of Transportation and Public Facilities has ten highway projects in the Mat-Su area that are slated for completion this year. Those projects account for $79.4 million, and there's more on the way.

Department spokesman Murph O'Brien said there are eight additional projects slated for development this coming spring.

"We're looking at starting up two very big Parks Highway projects," O'Brien said. "The first will be expanding the Parks Highway from Seward Meridian to Crusey street. The other project will be from White's Crossing to Willow. Those two projects alone account for $33 million in construction costs." He said almost all of that cost is being absorbed by the federal government.

Work has continued all winter on another federally-funded project, the $35.6 million interchange at the intersection of the Glenn and Parks highways. The project is scheduled to be finished in July, 2005, O'Brien said.

Better roads creates the potential for more migration to the Mat-Su area. Combine road expansion with access to more affordable land, and that could mean the Valley may see an even greater boom in the future. The state's Department of Labor and Workforce Development forecasts that the Mat-Su population is projected to jump from its current numbers of just under 65,000 boroughwide to nearly 75,000 in five years. The forecast shows the borough's population increasing to more than 100,000 by the year 2018.

Interesting factors

There are some other interesting factors in the Department of Labor's statistical look at the Mat-Su. The Valley is much less ethnically diverse than Anchorage. Nearly 88 percent of Mat-Su residents are Caucasian versus 72 percent in Anchorage.

Valley residents are also aging faster, according to the report. The average age in the Mat-Su is 34.1 years, nearly two years older than the average age in Alaska. Fifty nine percent of Mat-Su residents are married, compared to 54 percent of Anchorage residents. And a whopping 79 percent of Valley families own their own homes, nearly 20 percentage points higher than Anchorage families.

The one factor that shows the most consistency in the department survey is that Anchorage and the Mat-Su are definitely moving closer to each other. In 1990, 14 percent of the Anchorage/Mat-Su population lived in the Valley. Today, 20 percent of the combined population lives there. By 2018, that number is expected to rise to 26 percent.

Chas St. George is a free-lance writer living in Palmer. He can be reached via e-mail at stgeorge@mtaonline.net.