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As the housing market in the Lower 48 continues to show weakness, such is not the case on the Kenai Peninsula, according to one leading Soldotna realtor.

"I think the market will continue strong and steady in the lower price ranges," said Karen Carson on Friday about single-family houses priced at $250,000 and below.

She also anticipates about a three- to five-year delay before the central peninsula fully recovers to sales prices as were experienced in 2005 and 2006.

"Right now, any home under $250,000, that is properly prepared for the market, should sell in 60 to 90 days," Carson said.

A sales licensee with Choice Realty, Carson said the reason the market is stronger on the peninsula than in the Lower 48 primarily is due to the fact $350,000-a-year jobs are not available on the Kenai Peninsula.

"Salaries, interest rates and availability were not here," she said, explaining why house prices did not experience the huge bubble seen down south.

When the real estate bubble burst -- especially in Florida, California, New York and Washington, states with the biggest year-to-year increase in prices -- it only appeared as a bump in Alaska, Carson said.

"The little bump in Alaska was due to the availability of money," she said. "The market did not support those big increases in price."

This year, according to Zillow Real Estate Market Reports, Florida prices are down 20.5 percent, California prices are seeing a 15 percent drop, New York is off 7.5 percent and Washington is down 10.9 percent.

In contrast, prices on the central Kenai Peninsula were up 9.63 percent in 2008, the last full year for which prices are available. Included in the average are home sales from North Kenai down to Clam Gulch and from Cook Inlet east to Funny River.

The average list price was $139,673, and on average, houses sold for $131,953 after being on the market 198 days on the central Kenai Peninsula.

The current mortgage interest rate is between 5.5 percent and 6 percent for a conventional loan.

When asked how long houses currently are staying on the market, Carson, a member of the Kenai Peninsula Board of Realtors, said the statistic is an unreasonable measure because while lower range houses are selling in 60 to 90 days, "everything over $350,000 is staying on the market forever."

In 2005 and 2006, when house sales peaked on the central peninsula, Carson said, "people came here with surplus real estate dollars."

"They came up building dream homes ... second homes ... and had 1031 tax-free exchange money," she said, explaining an Internal Revenue Service provision allowing people to reinvest profits from real estate sales and deferring taxes until they sold the property at a later time, presumably when they had less income.

"Right now, all of the money that was parked is zero," she said. "Because people in the Lower 48 can't sell those big houses, they're not making those big gains."

Because there are no large profits to reinvest, the higher-end homes on the peninsula are staying on the market.

After rising steadily to an average selling price of $93,470 in 2002, central Kenai Peninsula prices slumped to $89,622 in 2003, but have risen steadily again averaging $93,077 in 2004, $106,301 in 2005, $117,926 in 2006, $121,641 in 2007 and $131,953 last year.

Phil Hermanek can be reached at phillip.hermanek@peninsulaclarion.com.