When it comes to honesty and integrity, how would you rate your real estate agent? How about your builder or remodeler?

If you participated in the most recent Gallup poll on the ethics of people in different professions, you'd give them only an average grade. Indeed, of the 21 professions tested in the survey conducted just before Thanksgiving, they ranked 10th and 11th respectively.

They didn't do nearly as well as nurses, which continue to be rated most positively -- and by a substantial margin. But they ranked far better than telemarketers and car salesmen, both of which held down the bottom of this year's list -- as they do almost every year.

Builders and agents even did better than lawyers and lawmakers. But -- and this is worth mentioning -- they were a notch below journalists.

Gallup questions folks about what they think about the veracity and character of various professions every year. It's been a while since realty agent and contractors were on the list, which changes with each survey. But if memory serves, the latest poll rates them higher than ever.

Bankers, a wide field which presumably includes mortgage lenders, did well, too. As a group, bankers have received ratings as low as 26 percent. But this time around, they scored an impressive 40 percent rating.

In this year's poll of 1,002 adults over age 18, nurses had the best marks, with 82 percent of the respondents giving them a high or very high rating. This should comes as no surprise: At 80 percent, nurses have averaged the highest honesty ratings since Gallup first asked about the profession in 1999.

That is significantly higher than any other profession that has been asked about in more than one survey. The next highest averages belong to military officers (69 percent), veterinarians (66 percent), pharmacists (65 percent) and high school teachers (64 percent).

For what it's worth, car salesman have been at the bottom of the heap in nearly every survey since it was first undertaken in 1976, displaced only by politicians in '76 and telemarketers in 2002 and again in 2005. Car salesmen and telemarketers have the lowest historical ratings of all the professions studied.

Here's how the various professions stacked up this year's telephone survey:

Honesty and Ethics Ratings (by percentage of very low to very high)

Source: The Gallup Organization

Published: January 4, 2006

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When Lew Sichelman first started writing about housing in 1969, he was the youngest real estate writer in the country. Now, 37 years later, he's one of the oldest -- and most decorated. He has been rated the top housing columnist in the country by the National Association of Realtors as well as by his peers in the National Association of Real Estate Editors. Indeed, NAREE has recognized his work on numerous occasions. One year - due to his advancing age, he can't recall which one - he earned top honors in the annual NAREE Journalism Contest in three out of the four major writing categories. It was the first time one writer has won so many NAREE awards in a single year. Known for his ability to make even the most difficult topics understandable, Sichelman also has been honored by the National Association of Home Builders and the Mortgage Bankers Association. He began providing in-depth coverage of and consumer-oriented information about housing and housing finance at the Washington Daily News, where he was real estate editor. He held that same position for nine more years at the Washington Star, which purchased the News in 1972. The Star, a so-called "writer's newspaper" which also had the misfortune of being an evening paper, was put out of its misery in 1981, and Sichelman, who had begun self-syndicating his column in 1978, decided to become a full-time columnist. Today, his column, "The Housing Scene," is distributed by United Media to newspapers throughout the country. He also is on the staff of National Mortgage News, an independent newspaper which is considered the bible of the mortgage business. And he writes for numerous other publications, including MarketWatch.com, where he answers readers questions once a week, Sports Illustrated (don't ask), RealtyTimes.com, BigBuilder and others. Sichelman is married, the father of five and grandfather of eleven.