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MIDDLETOWN — The local housing market's risk of continuing its downward spiral in value is low, according to a recent survey.

PMI Mortgage Insurance Co. released its Summer 2008 U.S. Market Risk Index on Tuesday, July 1, which ranks the nation's 50 largest metropolitan statistical areas according to the likelihood that home prices will be lower in the next two years.

According to the survey, the Cincinnati-Middletown area has a less than 1 percent chance of further decline in housing prices.

The findings are not surprising considering the local market was hit early on in the housing slump, said Reva Owens, president of the Middletown Board of Realtors.

"We were one of the first areas that were hit with the decline in prices so it might be natural for us to be one of the first ones to stabilize," Owens said.

Lora Reece, president of the Hamilton Fairfield Oxford Board of Realtors, said the survey reflects her own observations.

"The home prices in the area ... have stabilized," she said.

However, other areas in the nation, especially California and Florida, have not been so lucky. Some regions in those states have a more than 90 percent chance of prices continuing to decline, the survey indicated.

Overall, the majority of the United States has a greater than 50 percent chance of seeing lower housing prices in the next two years. The difference between homes on the market versus the number of buyers nationwide is the highest since 1985, said David Berson, PMI's chief economist and strategist.

"Given the magnitude of the inventory overhang, we expect national home price declines to continue into at least 2009," he said.

Locally, Owens said there is still plenty of room for home price improvements, "We're doing OK, not great."