It was pretty certain before 2014 was over that Oahu home prices would set a record. And they did. Yet there also was a dip in the number of sales as limited inventory clashed a bit with buyer demand.

The Honolulu Board of Realtors released for publication Wednesday its latest monthly sale report with December data that rounded out a year during which record prices were broken.

"I think overall the market was pretty good for 2014," said Jack Legal, board president and owner of Legal Realty in Kapo­lei.

The median single-family home price rose 3.8 percent to $675,000 last year from the prior record of $650,000 in 2013. Before that the record was $643,500 in 2007.

Condominium prices also broke the prior year’s record, with the median rising 5.4 percent to $350,000 in 2014 from $332,000 in 2013. Before that the record was $325,000 in 2007 and 2008.

Median prices for both condos and single-family houses have risen modestly for three consecutive years, driven in large part by falling unemployment, rising personal income, record tourism arrivals and low interest rates.

However, fewer homes were sold in 2014. That ended two consecutive years of rising sale volume.

The decline was slight: about 1 percent for both single-family houses and condos. There were 3,285 single-family house sales last year, down from 3,312 the year before. For condos there were 4,810 sales compared with 4,874.

Local economists had been warning for much of last year that the pace of new home construction was near a historic low and putting pressure on prices.

There has been some pickup in building, though much of it is on condominium towers started in recent months that will take two years to complete, which suggests that the pressure on the market might not ease much this year.

Legal, the board president, said buyer demand should persist with low interest rates, and that he expects 2015 will be another good year for Oahu real estate.

"Our expectation is that the market will continue to be hot," he said.

The University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization published a forecast in August predicting median prices will rise this year to $755,000 for single-family houses and to $379,000 for condos.

As if to punctuate the gains last year, the median price for condos sold in December was higher than any month in history, at $361,250. The prior high was $360,000 in June. In December 2013 the median was $330,000. There were 390 condo sales last month, unchanged from the same month the year before.

For single-family houses the median sale price in December was $690,000, up 0.7 percent from $685,000 a year earlier, while the number of sales was nearly unchanged at 284 compared with 283.