Higher median prices in Diamond Head, Hawai'i Kai, Central O'ahu, the Leeward Coast, Waipahu and Pearl City helped boost O'ahu's overall median sale price to $649,900 in the quarter, up from $635,000 a year earlier.

Median prices were lower for metro O'ahu, Kailua, Kane'ohe, the 'Ewa Plain, the North Shore and Makakilo.

Condominiums sold for a median $330,000 in the third quarter, up 4.8 percent from $315,000 in the 2006 third quarter, the report said.

Median condo prices were up in five of 12 regions — Kailua, Kane'ohe, Makakilo, Pearl City and the island's biggest condo market, metro O'ahu. Regions with lower median prices were Diamond Head, Hawai'i Kai, the North Shore, Central O'ahu, the Leeward Coast, the 'Ewa Plain and Waipahu.

The median is a point where half the sales were for more and half for less. Generally, median prices are affected by changes in property value as well as any significant shift in the volume of homes sold in different regions and neighborhood, as well as the distribution of homes by size, age and other qualities.

The Board of Realtors did not publish the number of quarterly sales by region. For all of O'ahu, there were 975 single-family homes sold in the third quarter, down 10.5 percent from 1,089 a year earlier. There were 1,366 condo sales, down 12.4 percent from 1,559, in the same comparable period.

Total dollar volume of transactions for the quarter was $1.311 billion, down 9.5 percent or $136 million from $1.447 billion in the same quarter last year.