You'd think listening to the media nationally that prices of homes across the US are falling just like the prices at Wal Mart...  

Sometimes the local media picks up a national story and runs with it... the sky is falling, home prices are plummeting... other times local media reflects the true picture of the market in Central Ohio..

No prices are not falling in Central Ohio.  Risk of falling prices is low locally...   we rate right DOWN there at the bottom of the list nationally! Harley Rouda Jr. the CEO of Real Living forwarded us the latest PMI report yesterday.... he wrote:

"In many markets, the media hype predicting home price declines is just not based on the facts. "

The PMI Report - 3rd Quarter 2007 a PDF asks "What's a Normal Housing Market?"

See Page 7 of the report issued about the 3rd quarter 2007 for what cities have a high risk of housing prices falling. 

Page 11 of the PDF is my other favorite page of the report.  The map... California is red.  Some markets in Florida are red...   red is high risk...

1.  Fort Worth - Arlington TX (bottom of the list of 381 markets in the US)
2.  Dallas, Plano, Irving TX
3.  Pittsburgh PA
4.  Houston, Sugarland-Baytown TX
5.  San Antonio TX
6.  Indianapolis - Carmel IN
7.  Cincinnati - Middletown OH, KY, IN
8.  Columbus OH
9.  Austin Roundrock TX
10. Kansas City MO KS 

I've written about Columbus place on the PMI list before... Columbus and the usual suspects are not new to the bottom of PMI's list. 

Previous entries about the PMI list:

PMI - Fall 2007

PMI - Fall 2006

I'd love to hear from you if you have a comment on the topic of the PMI report and home prices. All comments are moderated so you will not see your comment immediately. Thanks.

Copyright 2008 Discover Columbus and Maureen McCabe

The Real Estate Bloggers is "Real Estate, Mortgage, and Development News"  

 Last week The Real Estate Bloggers posted: 10 Riskiest Housing Markets Fall 2006 -  Columbus is NOT on the list! 

Followed by 10 Safest Housing Markets Fall 2006 - Columbus IS on the safest list

According to The Real Estate Bloggers:

"The percentage is the probability determined by the PMI Institute that housing prices in that market sector will go down 10 percent or more in the next two years. Pittsburghs chance of losing 10 percent is 6.1 percent making the city the safest investment according to the PMI Group. "

        c. 2006 Columbus Best Blog