The nation’s Sun Belt continues to be the fastest-growing region of the United States. Texas, especially, saw big population gains in both 2006 and 2007.

Writer Paul Weber, with the Associated Press, wrote that four Texas metropolitan areas were among the 10 metro areas that saw the biggest population increase in the two years. You can read the story here.

Dallas-Fort Worth topped the list, adding 162,000 residents from July of 2006 to July of 2007. Houston, Austin and San Antonio also made the top 10.

Atlanta saw the second-largest jump, adding more than 151,000 new residents, while Phoenix came in third with more than 132,000 newcomers.

According to the story, 27 of the 50 fastest-growing metro areas were in the South, while 20 were in the West. Two were in the Midwest, and none were in the Northeast. The reamining metro area, Fayetteville, Ark., straddles the South and Midwest.

C’mon, people, what’s wrong the Midwest? I’m a proud Midwesterner since birth. You don’t like snowstorms, freezing winters, muggy summers or high unemployment?

If this trend continues, I fear I may be the last person living in the Midwest.

Housing professionals like to say that residential real estate is all about location. I’ve heard from many Realtors that you have to look at individual markets when talking about the country’s housing slump. Just because sales are bad and prices are dropping in much of Florida, it doesn’t mean that things are equally as bad in Chicago.

A recent story by James Hagerty in the Washington Post’s online Real Estate Journal says that’s changing. Even previously strong real estate markets are now suffering from the housing slump. You can read the story here.

According to the story, the housing slump has finally hit the Pacific Northwest and North Carolina, two markets that had largely been immune to the problems in the residential real estate market. The story even mentions that Manhattan may soon seen its own version of the housing slump.

There is some good news in the story, though. The markets in Boston and Denver are still going strong, for instance. And Dallas held steady, too.

But the overall theme of the story is a chilling one for those hoping that an end to the housing slump is near: Housing troubles are still spreading across the country. It looks like 2008 is going to be another tough year for the residential market.