10 Riskiest U.S. Housing Markets

Even with hints of a housing recovery in some places, risky markets, dominated by nonprime mortgages, still prevail in a number of areas.

Forbes magazine and Moody’s Economy.com surveyed the 200 largest metropolitan areas, adding up the number of loans to low-rated borrowers and dividing that sum by the total number of mortgages to calculate the percentage of each area’s market that is below prime.

Here are the 10 metro areas with the highest percentages of nonprime mortgages, which makes them susceptible to defaults as unemployment rates continue to rise.

• Mission, Texas
• Detroit
• Miami
• Brownsville, Texas
• Merced, Calif.
• Lakeland, Fla.
• Bakersfield, Calif.
• Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
• San Bernardino, Calif.
• Visalia, Calif.

Source: Forbes, Maha Atal (03/31/2009)