’Tis the Season … for (what else?) lists. There are shopping lists, wish lists, nice lists and, for those of you shopping for investment ideas, BlackRock’s recently released list of five things to know and five things to do in 2014. (My colleagues, Russ Koesterich and Jeff Rosenberg blogged about it earlier this week.) Among those five “to do’s” is to consider adding municipal bonds to your portfolio.
Given the challenging performance this year, some may be surprised to see municipal bonds among our investment preferences for 2014. But as we note in our December market commentary, there’s a great deal to like about the asset class.
In keeping with the format of our recent publication, following is a short list of things I think investors should know about munis heading into 2014:
- Detroit and Puerto Rico make for rousing headlines, but they simply do not characterize the broader municipal market. To be sure, trouble spots exist, but we see many more areas of opportunity. Note the blues and greens in the map below, which are more prevalent than the orange areas. This improving trend paints a different picture than it did only a few years ago when we introduced this map.
2. Municipal market fundamentals remain sound (stronger, in fact, than they have been in five years, as I outline in this blog post). Many states are in better shape today than they were prior to the 2008 financial crisis and economic recession. They’ve learned some hard lessons after years of austerity and tough budget-balancing decisions. We would argue that recent developments in Detroit and Illinois are market positives in that they are setting precedents that may ultimately improve the health of state and local governments as they battle high pension costs.
3. The mid-year correction in munis was dramatic. But it also was overdone and may have largely factored in the effects of Fed tapering. That means there is value to be had in munis today. We believe current market levels offer an attractive entry point into a high-quality, income-oriented asset class, and/or an opportunity to reposition your portfolio for the future.