Blanche Evans said this morning:

The PMI Mortgage Insurance Company, the U.S. subsidiary of The PMI Group, Inc., has updated its 2007 U.S. Market Risk Index. By ranking the 50 largest metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) by the likelihood that home prices will be lower in two years, the average score, weighted by population, was 346 — which means there’s a 34.6 percent chance that home prices will be lower in two years than they are now.

According to yesterday’s Dallas Morning News:

"The areas that have had big run-ups in prices and have seen a significant slowdown in their appreciation rate are where the highest risks are," said PMI’s Mark Milner. "When you’ve had big run-up in prices, you tend to get affordability out of whack, and that adds risk."

At the other end of the risk scale, cities with "a history of low to moderate rates of volatility in house price appreciation have a lower risk of price declines," Mr. Milner said.

While the average risk is 34.6%, the risk varies widely according to metro area:

Cities with the highest risk for declines:

• Riverside, Calif., 65%
• Phoenix, 64%
• Las Vegas, 61%
• West Palm Beach, Fla., 60%
• Los Angeles, 58%

Cities with the lowest risk:

• Pittsburgh, 6.4%
• Fort Worth, 7.4%
• Dallas, 7.5%
• Houston, 7.9%
• Indianapolis. 8.4%

You can read the report here, along with some great graphs. [Thank you Old Mike!]