The median price of a single-family home on O'ahu tumbled 8.8 percent in June to $625,000 as dwindling demand convinced many sellers to take less than they probably could have gotten a year ago.

The drop, the largest this year, was due in part to the median price having set a record high of $685,000 in June 2007.

As prices head south, some buyers have the mentality that, if they wait long enough, sellers will get desperate, said Wai'anae resident Momi Robins.

"They're just waiting for that steal," said Robins, who has tried to sell her property — two homes on an acre of land on Wai'anae Valley Road — on and off for a year. "It's been real hard for me to sell it."

Robins said she had her property appraised about a year ago at $720,000 and listed it at $700,000. Recently she reduced the price to $660,000 and received about a half-dozen inquiries that she hopes will result in a sale.

Yesterday's report from the Honolulu Board of Realtors confirms that buyers are getting scarce. Last month there were 232 single-family home sales, down 31.4 percent from 338 sales in June 2007. Year-to-date sales are down 25.7 percent to 1,413 from 1,902 in the same period last year.

Harvey Shapiro, a research economist for the Honolulu Board of Realtors, said there could be a further slowing of sales throughout the summer, but he predicts the median home price will stay in the $620,000s.

"Pretty manini changes," Shapiro said. "It's still very stable, especially compared to the Mainland."

For the first half of this year, O'ahu's median home resale price was $629,000, down 2.5 percent from $645,000 in the same period last year.

The decrease over the past six months isn't far from what the University of Hawai'i Economic Research Organization in March predicted would be a 3.2 percent decline for the full year. UHERO also forecasts a median price decline of 2.3 percent next year.

Last month's median price was higher than the roughly $600,000 median in January and February, and about even with the March median of $628,000.

In the condominium market, the median sale price in June was $327,500, down 1.9 percent from $334,000 a year earlier. It was the first median price decline for any month this year for condos, which set a price record in May at $337,300.

The number of condo sales was down 35.1 percent to 355 from 547 in the same period.

For the first six months of this year, condo sales are down 27.5 percent to 2,158, from 2,978 in the same period last year. Year-to-date, the median condo price is up 1.5 percent to $330,000.

Combined dollar volume for single-family homes and condos over the first six months of this year was $1.97 billion, a decrease of 25.4 percent, or $671 million, from $2.64 billion in the same period last year.