Take a gamble: buy a house

Zillow.com and Bloomberg.com have combined forces to figure out which American housing markets have been the riskiest over the past 35 years. Here's the methodology: assuming buyers held their homes for five years before selling, what was their chance of suffering a loss?

San Diego came in ninth among major metro areas, with a 27.4 percent risk of a loss at some point over the 35-year period. San Diego's worst year was minus 18.7 percent from January to December of 2008. The best was a gain of 30 percent from October of 2003 to September of 2004.

The riskiest market was Hartford, Connecticut, with a 36.8 percent risk of loss.

Bloomberg and Zillow also listed the markets with the least risk of loss — the stablest markets. The winner was deeply depressed and snow-plagued Buffalo, New York, with zero percent risk of loss over the 35-year period.