It was just 2.4 percent, but last month Oahu’s housing market finally showed a bit of the median price growth projected by local economists this year for single-family homes.

The Honolulu Board of Realtors reported Monday that the median price for previously owned single-family homes rose to $640,000 in March from $625,000 in the same month last year.

March’s gain followed three consecutive months in which the median price hovered at about $600,000, or roughly 1 percent to 4 percent lower than the respective year-ago months.

Those slips followed median price gains for the first 11 months last year, and expectations by local economists that price appreciation would continue this year.

The University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization issued a forecast in February that projected Oahu’s single-family home median sale price will rise 6.7 percent this year to almost $670,000.

For the first three months of this year, the median price was at $600,000, or 2.7 percent lower than the $616,950 median at the same point last year.

Single-family home sales volume in March rose 4.1 percent to 231, up from 222 a year earlier.

In Oahu’s condominium market the median price rose 9.1 percent to $340,000 last month from $311,750 a year earlier and unchanged from February.

For the first three months of the year, the median condo price was the same at $340,000, representing a 9.7 percent gain over $310,000 for the same period last year.

UHERO forecasts a 7.4 percent median condo price gain this year, which would be about $340,000 because the organization uses a slightly different median price for last year.

Sales volume for previously owned condos rose 21.6 percent to 411 in March from 338 a year earlier.

The Board of Realtors, in an unusual move, adjusted its condo data with a footnote to add 174 sales by a developer of a new condo tower.

The trade association incorporated the sales at the project called Holo­mua in Makiki to suggest that the volume of condo resales in March was "impacted" because a large number of buyers were attracted to the new project, where prices ranged from $299,000 to $400,000.

Holomua sales were largely contracted a year or more ago while the high-rise was under construction, and those sales closed in March when the building was finished. Resales reflect completed sales that typically result from purchase contracts signed one to three months prior.

"Even without those closed (Holo­mua) sales, the number of condo (resales) increased by an impressive 21.6 percent over last year," Kevin Mi­yama, president of the Hono­lulu Board of Realtors and an agent with Prudential Locations, said in a written statement. "Momentum is strong in the Honolulu market."