The growth affects businesses, communities, and land values in the Truckee-Tahoe Region as people push up the hill from both sides of the Sierra Crest--west and east. For example, during the winter local ski areas are heavily dependent on "drive-up" skiers, i.e., those from the Bay Area, Sacramento, and Reno. If snow conditions are weak, as they were this last season, people simply stay home. The Sierra Sun reports that skier and snowboarder visits were down 20% last season. Lake Tahoe gets slightly more than 50% of the skier visits in the state; 3.5 million visitors were here in '06-'07.

Of the state's 58 counties, 22 grew more rapidly than the state as a whole in 2006; 34 grew more slowly; and two, nearby Plumas and Sierra counties, had small population losses.