The alarm bells keep ringing for the US housing bubble. "Forty-eight of the nation's 50 largest metropolitan statistical areas face a greater risk of declining home prices this quarter, an industry report found today. House-price appreciation has slowed in nearly half of the metropolitan statistical areas compared with last quarter, according to PMI Mortgage Insurance Co.'s latest risk index."

"Fourteen of the top 50 metro areas now have risk scores above 500, meaning they face a 50 percent or greater risk of home-price declines in the next two years, up from 11 metro areas last quarter."

"In addition to Minneapolis, metro areas that saw significant increases in risk were Virginia Beach, Va. (+65 points to 274); Baltimore, Md. (+62 to 279); Newark, N.J. (+61 to 427); New York (+58 to 506); and Washington, D.C. (+56 to 401)."

"The San Jose area, which includes Sunnyvale and Santa Clara, ranks No. 11 among the 50 metropolitan areas that PMI analyzed using data from the fourth quarter of 2005. It was the third consecutive quarter that San Jose's risk rating rose, climbing from 53 percent and 47 percent in the previous two quarters."

"The risk of a downturn is slightly higher elsewhere in the Bay Area, with a 58 percent chance of a decline in the Oakland-Fremont-Hayward area and a 55 percent risk in San Francisco-San Mateo-Redwood City area. 'You really can't have a situation where something as basic as home prices gets that far away from economic fundamentals for that long a period of time,' said Beth Haiken, a spokeswoman for PMI Group. 'It's just not sustainable.'"

"Eight of the top 11 areas are in California, led by San Diego with a 60 percent chance of a decline. Areas near Boston and New York round out the list of 14 places where there's at least a 50-50 chance of a price decline."

"When the end of the Cold War caused consolidation of the defense industry, the number of home sales in the Los Angeles area peaked in November 1988, but home prices didn't top out for nearly 2 1/2 years. 'Then the prices began this gradual, painful, slow deterioration' of about 5 percent a year, Edward E. Leamer, director of the UCLA Anderson Forecast said. 'Don't watch the prices,' he said. 'Watch the volume.'"

"In Santa Clara County, sales of new and existing houses and condos dropped 14 percent from the record mark set the previous February. It was the slowest February since 2001, according to DataQuick."