Sales and median prices of previously owned homes on the Big Island and Kaua'i were mostly lower last month, capping what was a year of modest price declines and big drops in sales volume.

The full-year price drops were mildest on Kaua'i, the smallest market in Hawai'i for home resales. The median price for condominiums on Kaua'i fell 4 percent to $545,000 last year from $565,000 a year earlier.

There were 169 Kaua'i condo sales last year, a 43 percent drop from 295 sales a year earlier.

Kaua'i single-family homes last year sold for $615,000, down 5 percent from $650,000 a year earlier. Sales totaled 283, down 31 percent from 408.

On the Big Island, the median condo price last year was $370,000, down 6 percent from $394,900 a year earlier. Sales totaled 368, down 29 percent from 519 in the same period.

Big Island single-family homes sold for a median $345,000 last year, down 13 percent from $395,000 a year earlier. There were 1,136 sales, down 33 percent from 1,684.

The declines were in line with a generally softening real estate market statewide, though the Neighbor Island markets typically have greater changes in median prices because of the relatively small numbers of sales that can more easily skew median prices with shifts in the mix of high-priced and low-priced homes sold.

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

Hawai'i Information Service compiled the sales data on the two islands for county Realtor associations. The Realtors Association of Maui had yet to release December and full-year statistics as of yesterday afternoon. O'ahu data was released yesterday and is reported in a separate story today.

For December only, the median price for Big Island condos rose 21 percent to $351,000. However, the change was largely influenced by the biggest change regionally in the number of sales, which occurred in South Hilo where sales went from six in December 2007 to zero last month. That elevated last month's overall median price because South Hilo is a low-priced market. The median there in December 2007 was $132,500.

There were 18 Big Island condo sales for all of last month, down 44 percent from 32 a year earlier.

Big Island single-family homes last month sold for a median $297,500, down 22 percent from $380,000 in December 2007. There were 89 sales, down 26 percent from 121 in the same period.Kaua'i single-family home sales fell 38 percent to 18 last month from 29 a year earlier. The median price was $495,000, down 21 percent from $625,000.

There were just nine condo sales on Kaua'i last month, down 31 percent from 13 a year earlier. The median price was $625,000, up 45 percent from $430,000.