The median price for O'ahu single-family home resales hardly budged last month, slipping 1 percent from a year ago and continuing a recent trend of prices hovering about where they were the year before.

The Honolulu Board of Realtors reported previously owned single-family homes sold for a median $643,500 in March, compared with $650,000 a year earlier.

O'ahu's condominium resale median price also remained close to flat, with a 2 percent rise to $321,000 over the same month last year.

The relatively soft prices, however, didn't buoy sales, which last month declined 16 percent to 330 for single-family homes; condo sales were down 22 percent to 541.

Market activity has been cooling over the past 16 months or so as home prices spiked out of the price range of more buyers, reducing what had been strong demand to weaker but still healthy levels.

Moanalua Valley resident Betty Wasa was among those who kept the market moving last month, helping purchase a house in Moanalua for her daughter who works in the medical field.

It helped that the seller accepted $100,000 less than the $750,000 asking price, but Wasa still considered the sale price high.

"My daughter thinks it's a good deal," she said. "To me, it's high."

Wasa said she didn't consider whether prices might go up, down or remain flat this year, but made the purchase primarily because the four-bedroom home built in 1959 was in a nearby neighborhood.

Several leading brokers and local economists forecast that O'ahu median home prices this year will stay within a low single-digit percentage range up or down from price levels last year.

Harvey Shapiro, research economist for the Honolulu Board of Realtors, expects single-family home median prices to stay between $600,000 and $650,000 this year.

The median price is a point at which half the homes sell for more and half for less.

The median price for single-family homes in March jumped nearly $30,000 from February, but there was a roughly $35,000 February-to-March gain last year.

"So the comparison looks flat," Shapiro said. Also, seasonal differences can make price comparisons from one month to the next not very useful.

The median price in March was the highest for the year to date, but prices were higher last year in October, July, May and March.

Since November, when the year-over-year median price for single-family homes fell for the first time in more than five years, prices have hovered around where they were a year earlier — moving up 1 percent in December, down 2 percent in January and up less than 1 percent in February.

For the first three months of the year combined, the single-family home median price is down 1 percent, and sales are down 8 percent. For condos, the median price is up 4 percent, and sales are down 19 percent in the quarter.

Shapiro said that based on homes that were in escrow last month, there likely will be more April sales at higher median prices for single-family homes and condos compared with last April.

"It shows there's continued demand for housing," he said, noting that interest rates are still attractive.

Berton Hamamoto, president of Property Profiles Inc. and the Board of Realtors, said he sees other signs that suggest the market may pick up soon, including lower inventory and a quicker sales pace.

According to Realtor association statistics, there were 1,714 single-family homes on the market last month. That was three fewer than in February but 72 more than in March 2006.

Still, inventory in November was at a nine-year peak of 2,052 and has generally softened since then.

Condo inventory last month totaled 2,238, or 56 fewer than February and 10 fewer than March 2006. Condo inventory was at a nine-year peak of 2,750 in September.

The pace of home sales also improved last month. Single-family homes sold in March spent a median 65 days on the market, down from 70 in February. But the median was still up from 60 days in January and 44 days in March 2006.

Condos sold last month spent a median 40 days on the market, down from 59 days in February and 55 in January, but still up from 30 days in March 2006.

Reach Andrew Gomes at agomes@honoluluadvertiser.com.