For a second straight month, sales of previously owned condominiums on Kaua'i were in the single digits in September as rising global economic troubles weighed down Hawai'i's residential real estate market.

The dearth of condo sales on Kaua'i came amid a broader reduction in home sales on the Garden Isle and on the Big Island, according to new sales data compiled by Hawaii Information Service.

O'ahu home sales in September, reported last week, also were down. Maui sales statistics for September are expected to be released soon.

On Kaua'i, eight condos were sold in September, down from 20 in the same month last year. The slide followed the sale of six condos in August, which was about one-third the average monthly sales volume this year before August.

September's drop mostly occurred in areas with resort property — the Hanalei region that includes Princeville Resort, where sales fell to three last month from 10 in September 2007, and the Koloa region that includes Po'ipu, where there was one sale last month compared with six a year earlier.

Because the decline was predominantly in higher-priced resort areas, the islandwide median condo sale price fell to $495,000 last month from $590,000 a year earlier.

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

Single-family home sales on Kaua'i were down less sharply to 21 last month from 36 a year earlier, with most of the decline occurring in Hanalei, where sales declined to five from 11 and helped drive the islandwide median price down to $525,000 from $672,500 in the same period.

On the Big Island, there was a substantial drop in the number of condo sales to 24 last month from 40 a year earlier, but the median price rose 7 percent to $315,000 from $294,202.

The median price rise was enabled by a drop in condo sales in the lower-priced North Kona area where the condo median is around $300,000, and no drop in sales in the higher-priced South Kohala area, where the median price last month was $509,000.

Big Island single-family home sales declined to 83 last month from 121 a year earlier, and the median price declined to $320,000 from $400,000. The median price decline was largely influenced by the median price in the island's largest single-family home submarket, Puna, declining to $190,000 from $260,000.

Sales volumes and prices of existing homes have been falling nationally. In August, the U.S. median price of an existing house sold was $203,100, down 9.5 percent from a year earlier, the National Association of Realtors reported. Sales fell 11 percent.