Demand was heated for the fee-simple condos priced as low as $164,000, which led to a decrease in O'ahu's average new-home sales price by 10 percent to $363,830.

Purchasers snapped up 231 of 251 units in the 23-story tower, which accounted for more than half of the 384 sales on the Island in May.

The May total was a 38 percent rise from May 2003 and was the second-busiest sales month in nine years after April when another new condo boosted volume.

"If it weren't for the good sales in the condo market, sales would be down significantly," Cassiday said.

Sales of new single-family homes totaled 81, compared with 218 in May 2003. Cassiday said the decrease was partly due to a lag in inventory created by the concrete strike earlier this year.

But the condo market, where hundreds of units can be offered for sale at once, offset the single-family home sales slowdown.

The 215 N. King project next to A'ala Park priced one-bedroom, one-bath units from $164,000 to $195,000, and two-bedroom, two-bath units from $270,500 to $323,000.

In April, demand was driven by purchases at Moana Pacific, a twin-tower high-rise on Kapi'olani Boulevard between Pi'ikoi and Pensacola streets where unit prices roughly ranged from $300,000 to $800,000.

At the end of May, new-home inventory stood at 87, down just a few units compared with inventory at the same time during the previous two years.

The May sales data is for signed sales contracts, which generally take six to 18 months to complete when homes are delivered to purchasers.