A continued surge in home buying on Oahu last month helped drive the median sale price in the market closer to $1 million.

Previously owned single- family houses on the island sold for $978,000 in May, according to a Honolulu Board of Realtors report released Monday.

The figure represented a 23% rise over a $797,000 median sale price in the same month last year, and topped three consecutive prior peaks of $950,000 in March, $917,500 in February and $883,000 in January.

“I don’t think a $1 million sales price is too far off in the future for us because there’s just an extreme amount of demand still,” Shannon Heaven, the trade association’s president, said in a video posted by the organization.

There were 405 single- family home sales last month, a 63% surge from 248 sales a year earlier.

Much of the gain reflected abnormally low sale volume last year because of impacts during an early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet last month’s sale volume far exceeded the 320 sales in May 2019.

Brokerage firm Locations said in a company report that the number of sales last month was the highest for May in 17 years.

In Oahu’s condominium market the number of sales last month spiked even more than single-family home sales — soaring 135% to 598 in May from 254 in the same month last year.

The condo median sale price rose 15% to $457,750 from $399,000 in the year-over-year period.

Unlike Oahu’s single-family home market, the condo market this year has not yet set any price records. But it’s close. The peak in any month was set in July 2019 at $461,500.

Locations said in its report that the condo market, which includes townhomes, is becoming increasingly competitive as inventory declines and more buyers turn away from the single-family home market.

“With one in two single- family homes bid up over the asking price, more prospective homebuyers are shifting their attention to the condo and townhome market, which has also seen demand surge this year,” Jason Lazzerini, Locations president and CEO, said in the firm’s report.

Local real estate agents and economists have said that factors driving the sale and price booms include pent-up demand from buyers who stepped back from the market last year, near-historic low interest rates, low inventory and a wave of people moving to Hawaii to work remotely.

Heaven, an agent with Property Profiles, said there is particularly stiff competition for homes under $800,000. She noted that one entry-level home put on the market last month received 60 offers within a week of being listed.

“I was just shocked,” she said in the video. “This isn’t a market for the faint of heart.”

In another instance a home at Ocean Pointe in Ewa Beach sold last month for $78,000 over its list price — $977,000 compared with $899,000 — after spending eight days on the market in April before an offer was accepted.

Honolulu Board of Realtors data show that more new listings in recent months have been added to the market compared with last year, but that the increased demand is keeping total inventory below levels in recent past years.

“Inventory is just gobbled up so quickly,” Heaven said.

Sales in the trade association’s report reflect transactions that closed in May, which typically reflect sales agreements signed one to three months earlier. The median price is a point at which half the sales were for more and half were for less.