PMI Ranks Austin as Minimal Risk - Meaning Great Opportunities for Buyers
So PMI (Private Mortgage Insurance) produces a newsletter called Economic and Real Estate Trends that covers a pretty wide gamut of economic risk and models projecting residential real estate risk for the top 50 MSAs, and Austin is among the best performing of these MSA's.
So what does this mean for buyers in this market? Well for those that can qualify under the more stringent lending requirements, it means that you'll be able to take advantage of a buyers market (buying at a discount) with little risk of a downside in the next several years....below is more information related to the data here. I've provided a link to the original report from PMI below.
PMI provides a range of financial products for residential mortgages, public finance obligations, and mortgage-backed securities. This includes residential mortgage insurance and structured finance products to mortgage lenders, depository institutions, commercial banks, capital market participants, and investors in the United States.
What do they say about current trends and risk for the MSA's?
Basically there's a significant amount of risk in three large pockets, California, Arizona and Florida. Austin came out ranked a minimal risk (see map below) and performing 2nd best in appreciation among all MSAs.
What are the Numbers they track?
The numbers they track relate to risk which ties in the present housing industry strength, extent of economic and population growth and the exposure to prior hyper appreciation and exposure to sub-prime loans. Basically the Austin-Round Rock MSA performed really well in this context with a minimal risk ranking, and the second best performance in appreciation of all the tracked MSAs.
The full report that this information is drawn from can be found at http://media.corporate-ir.net/media_files/irol/63/63356/pmi_eret_fall08.pdf
Let me know if you have any questions about this and what it means for buyers or sellers in the Austin market.
