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Worried about housing prices declining? An article about the Chicago condo market I read this morning (on a condo-promoting web site!) made me wonder just how far down the market would go. By afternoon it had reached my inbox that if you live in Pittsburgh there was little reason to fear price drops. According to PMI, the Pittsburgh market has the least risk of declining.

PMI Mortgage Insurance ranks the nation's 50 largest metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) according to the likelihood that home prices will be lower in two years. The ranking showed Texas, Ohio, Indiana, and Pennsylvania MSAs constitute the lowest ranked group-those facing a less than 10 percent chance of lower prices.

Nine MSAs-West Palm Beach, FL, Oakland, Sacramento, and San Diego, CA, Boston and Cambridge, MA, Detroit and neighboring Warren, MI, and Cleveland, OH-saw slight year-over-year price declines.

Of course this only matters if you're trying to sell a house, and the authors point out in their press release that buying a house is a long-term investment. "If you already own, you need to take the long view and have realistic expectations about how much your property may appreciate. Building equity in a home is still a great way to build wealth over the long term."