PMI Predicts Where Prices Are Likely to Fall

Mortgage insurer PMI Group predicts that home prices will fall through the first quarter of 2011 in about 30 of the country’s 50 largest metropolitan areas.

“The housing market has been hit by a demand shock of high unemployment and a supply shock of distressed foreclosure sales,” LaVaughn Henry, senior economist at PMI.

The areas PMI says have the highest probability of lower prices in 2011 are:

• Miami
• Fort Lauderdale
• West Palm Beach, Fla.
• Orlando
• Tampa, Fla.
• Jacksonville, Fla.
• Riverside, Calif.
• Los Angeles
• Santa Ana, Calif.
• Sacramento
• San Diego
• Las Vegas
• Phoenix
• Providence, R.I.
• Detroit

Cities with the lowest probability of falling prices are:

• Cleveland
• Pittsburgh
• Columbus, Ohio
• San Antonio
• Houston
• Dallas
• Fort Worth