When the government of Puerto Rico missed most of a $58 million debt payment a little over two weeks ago, it tainted the municipal bond market, but not nearly as much as some had expected. Even the muni bond funds that held 30% or more of their assets in Puerto Rico bonds barely moved on the news.
That resiliency coupled with relatively high yields suggest that munis now are a good buy for investors, especially those in high tax brackets.
High grade long-term munis are yielding about 4% — a full percentage point more than the 30-year Treasury bond, which is "upside down," says David Kotok, chief investment officer of Cumberland Advisors and co-author of the new book "Adventures in Muniland."
Usually municipal bonds pay less interest than Treasuries because their interest payments are tax exempt, providing investors with even more after-tax income. Issuers therefore can find ready buyers paying lower relative yields.
An investor in the top 39.6% federal tax bracket, for example, would collect 6.62% interest on a 4% muni bond, and that's after accounting only for federal income taxes. If state and local income taxes were included in the calculation, the tax-equivalent yield would be even greater for many investors.
"It's a good time to buy munis," says Matt Fabian, partner at Municipal Market Analytics, an independent research firm focusing on the muni market. Even though interest rates are expected to rise, which would depress the price of all bonds, including munis, "long-term growth will be slower than in the past so rates are not likely to rise all that much," says Fabian. And when rates do rise, "munis should do better than taxable bonds" because the higher yields will cushion the price declines, he says.
A bigger risk for muni investors may be the credit risk of the issuer and, by extension, of the muni mutual funds or ETFs that own those bonds.
"Muni bonds are one of the sectors that hasn't healed since the financial crisis," explains Kotok. He advises investors to "watch the credits and the structure of the bonds" they buy and look beyond the usual analysis. "Be careful about debt issued by cities. Look at the property values and income, migration, crime rates against people and property. … Most governments pay [interest] most of the time and don't issue restatements like corporations in the business world do, but you can get government failures." One recent failure, in addition to Puerto Rico: the state of Illinois, which has been operating without a budget for seven weeks because of differences between the Republican governor and Democratic state Legislature. As a result of the political impasse, Chicago's Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority, which runs the nation's largest convention center, missed a debt payment last month, leading to a seven-notch credit downgrade by Standard & Poor's. The legislature ultimately overrode the governor's veto, restoring funds that will service the debt.
