I do think it is important to understand the regional population growth as the City of Wilmington proper is largely influenced by development occurring in neighboring Brunswick and Pender Counties.

@Cian Van Hees, regarding your interest in being a real estate agent, here are a couple of noteworthy reads: "SOLD" by David Greene, "The Millionaire Real Estate Agent" by Gary Keller,  "The One Thing" by Gary Keller, and "How To Win Friends & Influence People" by Dale Carnegie.

Nothing passive about real estate, no matter what the gurus or influencers will tell you. 

While this is a good thing in some ways, as it keeps the power to change taxes local to your own community, it does mean that the state government can’t act to regulate or influence this taxation.

The crash coarse would be to read:- BRRRR by @David Greene- Long Distance Real Estate Investing by @David Greene- The Book on Estimating Rehab Costs by @J Scott- How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie (Important for that Networking Piece) - What Every Real Estate Investor Needs to Know about Cash Flow ... by Frank Gallinelli (To bolster your knowledge of running the numbers) If you want to go a little deeper, I love the CPA advice on BRRRR from @Brandon Hall.Listen to Podcast 327.

Whether it be print, sphere of influence, the MLS portal for leads, and word of mouth from 1 agent to another agent...all works over time.

Luckily, I always have an open ear, but am not easily influenced by tenant sob stories.

Of course I'll go smaller if the money is there, but the 16+ was something I've heard from Grant Cardone; a major influence on my drive, work ethic, and my future success.

And I haven't heard a single friend mention that they think this will influence their decision to either stay in the city or flee to the suburbs.Additionally, I understood when buying in this city that there would have to be a financial reckoning.  

If you show just enough, then there are others who show way more and can influence the seller in a bidding war or multiple bids.