The national housing market may be rougher than a sandpaper handshake, but a new area real estate survey reveals the Valley has remained relatively unaffected.

Sale prices for homes sold in Northumberland, Union, Snyder and Montour counties climbed by an average of almost $10,000 in 2008, and total pre-sale time on the market dropped by an average of two days from 2007 -- signs the national housing crisis has all but bypassed the Valley.

"Business isn't bad here," said Art Bowen, founder of Selinsgrove-based Bowen Agency Realtors. "I tend to think (the dim national housing market) has passed us by."

Bowen said strong area employers like Geisinger Medical Center, Evangelical Community Hospital and others have provided a steady draw to the area, softening whatever blow the struggling national economy and rising gas prices have struck.

In fact, said Bowen, the local housing market favors neither buyer nor seller.

"It's quite balanced," he said. "Some buyers hear this national news and they think the bad market is occurring here. But its not."

Still, the Valley hasn't come away without a scratch. The real estate survey, compiled by a five-county Central Susquehanna Valley Board of Realtors, notes that total sales have dropped by about 13 percent throughout our four-county area, with the most significant 2008 decrease coming in Union County, where sales are down more than 21 percent from the same time period in 2007.

By contrast, home sales in Montour County are actually up by five percent from 2007.

Bowen said: "We need to focus on the seller's motivation. If they price their home right, the house will sell."