Orlando housing market is less risky.

Orlando housing market is less risky
Metro Orlando has a 17.9% chance prices will decline, which is lower than average.
Jerry W. Jackson Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted July 1, 2006

Home prices in the Orlando area have soared in recent years but remain less likely to fall than prices in most of the country's other large metro areas, according to new ratings released this week.The average metro area among the 50 studied has a 28.8 percent chance of declining home prices during the next two years, PMI Mortgage Insurance Co. reported.Metro Orlando -- Orange, Seminole, Osceola and Lake counties -- has a 17.9 percent chance of price declines, PMI estimated.That's up from 16 percent in the April survey but still well below other large metro markets in Florida, such as Fort Lauderdale (44.1 percent), Miami (35.9 percent) and Tampa-St. Petersburg (29.4 percent).PMI said most of the housing-price risk remains concentrated along the nation's East and West coasts, with eight of the 13 highest-risk areas in California and five in the Northeastern U.S.San Diego remains the country's riskiest market, with a 59.9 percent chance that prices will decline within two years. San Francisco moved into the top five of the risk ranking for the first time, PMI said, with a 58.5 percent chance of a price slide.PMI's risk index takes into account housing prices, labor statistics, housing affordability as measured by local household incomes, home-price appreciation, and the costs of conventional mortgages.PMI Mortgage Insurance is a subsidiary of The PMI Group Inc., a residential mortgage insurer based in Walnut Creek, Calif.In a separate report this week, RealtyTrac, an online marketplace for foreclosed property, reported that foreclosures nationwide continued to increase in May, though they appear to be leveling off.Foreclosures in May were 28 percent higher than the same month a year ago but only 2 percent higher than in April.The latest three-month trend "indicates foreclosure activity has stabilized in most housing markets across the country, after spiking sharply at the beginning of the year," RealtyTrac Chief Executive Officer James J. Saccacio said.Florida, with one new foreclosure filing for every 821 households, ranked as the eighth-busiest state for filings in May. Nationally, the rate was one filing for every 1,247 households. RealtyTrac Inc. is based in Irvine, Calif.