Sales of existing homes on Kaua'i and the Big Island in March were down or flat from the same month last year, though median prices were mostly higher for the relative few sales that did take place.

The biggest drop was in Kaua'i's condominium market, where there were just 19 sales last month, down 50 percent from 38 sales a year earlier.

Kaua'i condos sold for a median $675,000 last month.

That was up 19 percent from $568,100 a year earlier, and was the fourth-highest monthly median on record, according to sales data from Hawai'i Information Service.

Still, the market is considered relatively weak because there were so few sales, and because small numbers of sales can more easily skew median prices.

For instance, last month there were only two condo sales in Lihu'e, where the median price is generally less than $500,000. In March 2007 there were 11 sales.

But in the resort area of Hanalei, where median condo prices are close to $1 million, there were eight sales last month and 12 a year earlier.

The median price is a point at which half the sales were for more and half for less.

Single-family home sales on Kaua'i totaled 29 last month, down 40 percent from 48 sales a year earlier. The median price was up 2 percent to $687,900 from $673,750 in the same period.

On the Big Island, single-family home sales were down 45 percent to 101 last month, from 184 a year earlier.

The median price was down 16 percent to $389,000 from $462,500, which was a record, according to Hawai'i Information Service.

There were 45 Big Island condo sales in March, unchanged from a year earlier. The median price was $515,000, up 17 percent from $440,000. But again, geographic distribution appears to have played a role in the median price increase.

In South Hilo, where the median condo price is about $90,000, the number of sales declined from seven in March 2007 to two last month.

Meanwhile there were a few more condo sales last month than there were a year ago in South Kohala and North Kona, where median prices range from $300,000 to more than $1 million.