The news isn't all doom and gloom on the housing front. In fact, the buying, selling and building of homes in our area is suprisingly stable. Donna Giardot, of the Wilmington Homebuilder's Association said, "This area has never reflected the state or national trends, and we've not been as bad as other markets have been, in this downturn." Jeff Sweyer, owner of Century 21 Sweyer and Associates said, "We have seen much more traffic than we've seen in a very long time, so things are actually good." In the past five years, the population in Wilmington has been growing 4 percent annually. That's well above the national average at about one percent per year. The population growth and climate are a few factors that helped rank Wilmington the 14th healthiest housing market in the nation out of 75 cities. "If I can be ranked along with cities like Dallas, Denver, and Seattle, Charlotte, Raleigh, D.C. and Houston, I'll take that any day of the week," said Giardot. According to Builder Magazine, what keeps Wilmington desirable is it's access to the ocean, mountains and University. Not to mention the affordability of housing. A median home in the greater Wilmington area costs about $198,000. "We have a bullish attitude, we live in one of the best places to live in the world, and that will always remains," said Sweyer. The predicted population growth for the greater Wilmington area leaves real estate agents and builders confident that Southeastern N.C. will almost always bounce back.