Moody's Investors Service's recently released annual municipal bond market snapshot, US Municipal Bond Defaults and Recoveries, 1970-2017, with updates through 2017, reaffirms two hallmark benefits that muni bonds continue to offer. First, muni bonds continued to be highly rated in 2017, with upgrades narrowly outpacing downgrades for a second year running. Second, municipal bankruptcies and defaults remain extremely rare, even amidst headline-grabbing defaults by Puerto Rican entities.
The latest report also featured a significant update to Moody's entire dataset extending back to 1970. Using an algorithm, the authors were able to bring the historical credit