"The municipal market ended the year issuing approximately $285 billion of bonds compared with $407.7 billion in 2010. Investment News reported that through December 23, 2011, municipal bonds posted a 10.72% yield, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch indexes, the second-best performance since 10.73% in 2002. According to the article, municipals posted their best performance in 2009, when they posed a 14.5% return. The returns of 2011, in our opinion, will however be hard to duplicate this year due to a continued challenging market environment. Nonetheless we feel high quality municipal bonds will continue to provide value to investors."RBC Wealth Management
