Heat pumps aren't quite so prevalent in these parts (yet), mostly because natural gas is dirt cheap. In my old house my highest gas bill of memory was a couple of years ago when we had several weeks of sub-freezing temps. If I recall properly, it was about $130 total. Had I been on a heat pump it would have cost roughly $250 in electricity.
Heat pumps are amazingly efficient in terms of energy transfer, and are far are more efficient than straight resistive heating. Unfortunately they still end up about twice the operating cost of a gas-fired unit in our market. That tends to sway a lot of buyers, at least around here.
Brad