October was a choppy month for sales and prices of homes on the Big Island and Kauai, according to a report released yesterday that showed portions of the two markets bumped up and down.

The biggest change occurred in the median price for condominiums sold on Kauai, with a 34 percent drop to $287,500 last month from $435,000 a year earlier. The swing was influenced by a relatively small number of sales, which rose 31 percent to 21 from 16 in the same period the previous year.

That gain in sales represented the biggest climb in the statistics compiled by Hawaii Information Service.

Influencing the median price significantly were six condos that sold in Lihue last month for a median $67,500, which compared with five condo sales a year earlier in the same area for a median $207,750.

The median price is a point at which half the sales were for more and half for less, so swings can be magnified by relatively few transactions as well as the mix of homes sold.

In Kauai’s single-family home market, the number of sales declined 19 percent to 26 in October from 32 in the same month last year. The median price rose 20 percent to $550,000 from $456,500.

On the Big Island there were 113 single-family home sales last month, a 10 percent decline from 126 a year earlier. The median price dipped 2 percent to $272,000 from $278,500.

The most stable market was the Big Island’s condo market, where the number of sales was unchanged at 29.

But the median price was down 20 percent to $285,000 from $357,000. In this submarket the biggest influence on median price was condo sales in North Kona, where there were 17 sales for a median $245,500 last month compared with 12 sales for a median $346,000 a year earlier.