Oahu’s housing market started 2017 with significantly more sales, but median prices were soft and included a slight decrease that broke a 13-month string of gains.

The price dip occurred for single-family houses, which sold for a median $730,000 in January, down 0.5 percent from $733,500 in the same month last year, according to a Honolulu Board of Realtors report released Monday.

The last time Oahu’s single-family home median price declined was November 2015, when the figure slipped 0.6 percent.

For Oahu condominiums the median sale price eked out a 1.5 percent gain to $380,000 last month from $374,500 in the same comparable period. While this was slightly positive, last month’s price was the lowest for any month since February 2016, when the median price was $378,444.

Local economists have been predicting that a 5-year-old trend of rising median home sale prices on Oahu is headed toward an easing through 2019, meaning the size of anticipated gains should get smaller.

The weak results in January could be a sign of that easing, though there have been median price dips in a month here or there over the past five years in which annual median price increases ranged from 3 to 8 percent.

Generally, local economists have said that job growth, rising personal income and relatively low interest rates are keeping up a healthy demand from homebuyers, while inventory of existing homes and construction of new homes lag historic levels.

In December the University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization said in a report that it expects market conditions will support 4.5 percent to 6.6 percent home price growth on Oahu over the next two years, with growth slowing in 2019.

Home sales volume in January was up substantially, even though the number of homes available for sale last month slipped to levels that have been lower only one time in the past two years.

There were 247 single-family house sales last month, up 6.5 percent from 232 sales a year earlier. The number of condo sales rose 11.8 percent to 378 last month from 338 a year earlier.

The number of residences available for sale last month was 1,035 for single-family homes and 1,522 for condos. Only one other month in the past two years had lower levels: March 2016, when there were 844 single-family homes and 1,342 condos on the market. Otherwise, monthly inventory during the two-year period ranged between 1,071 and 1,354 for single-family homes and between 1,625 and 2,040 for condos.

Sue Ann Lee, president of the Honolulu Board of Realtors and a broker with Properties of the Pacific LLC in Kaimuki, called the volume of sales last month “typical” for the beginning of the year and noted that there were dramatically more homes added to the sale inventory last month.

Sellers listed 446 more single-family homes for sale in January compared with 228 added in December. Condo owners listed 641 additional units for sale in January, which was the most for any month since 661 condo listings were added to the market in March. In December, 402 condo listings were added to the market.

“The new inventory coming onto the market is helpful,” Lee said in a statement. “However, more options at all price points are still needed to keep up with the demand for housing.”