The mild decline in O'ahu home prices last year kept the island in the four most expensive metropolitan housing markets for purchasing or renting a home, according to a new national study.

The combined median sale price of $400,000 for single-family homes and condominiums last year on O'ahu, or Honolulu County, was tied for fourth most expensive out of 208 U.S. metropolitan areas.

Fair market rent for a two-bedroom home was $1,631 in Honolulu, or second most expensive among 210 markets.

The rankings were produced in a study from the Center for Housing Policy, a research affiliate of the nonprofit National Housing Conference.

Because many other markets reported more moderate to severe home price declines last year, Honolulu's rank moved up among the most expensive markets. In 2007, Honolulu's home price was 18th most costly at $409,000, while Honolulu's rental rate was 11th most expensive.

For purchase prices, San Francisco was the most expensive market last year at $575,000 despite the median price falling from $770,000 a year earlier.

The least expensive was a tie between Saginaw, Mich., where the median price fell to $73,000 from $93,000 a year earlier, and Youngstown, Ohio, where the median price fell from $89,000.

Tying Honolulu at No. 4 was Santa Cruz, Calif., where the median had fallen to $400,000 from $630,000 in 2007.

For rents, San Francisco was the most expensive market at $1,658. Third most expensive after Honolulu was Santa Cruz at $1,590. The least expensive market was Wheeling, W.Va., at $577.

Not surprisingly, the study concluded that typical wages earned by workers in 60 working-class occupations — jobs including teachers, police officers, carpenters, cooks, accountants and paralegals — weren't high enough to purchase a home.

A few occupations, including construction manager, software programmer and registered nurse, had high-enough wages to afford the fair market rent on a two-bedroom home.

The study compared home price data from the 2008 fourth quarter and 2007 third quarter on new and existing home sales from the National Association of Home Builders and National Association of Realtors.

Following conventional mortgage underwriting guidelines, the study assumed that not more than 28 percent of household income should be used to pay the mortgage, property taxes and insurance. The study further assumed a down payment of 10 percent.

The study used fair market rent figures from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for fiscal years 2009 and 2007.