Oahu’s housing market continued to exhibit modest median price growth in July without reaching any new heights after breaking records in June.

Sales data set for release Thursday by the Honolulu Board of Realtors showed that the median price for single-family houses sold on the island last month rose 5.6 percent to $683,500 from $647,500 a year earlier.

For condominiums, the median sale price rose 1.8 percent to $351,750 from $345,500 in the same year-over-year period.

The gains followed record-breaking median sale prices of $700,000 for single-family houses and $360,000 for condos in June that represented peaks for any month in history.

Julie Meier, president of the Honolulu Board of Realtors and an agent with Prudential Locations LLC, described the July results as healthy.

"Median sales prices for homes and condos did not quite reach record highs, but still showed healthy gains year-over-year," she said in a statement.

Oahu’s housing market appears firmly on track to make 2014 a third consecutive year with moderate median price increases after four years of softness.

For the first seven months of the year, the median sale price for single-family houses is up 7.6 percent to $674,700 and the condo median sale price is up 6.1 percent to $350,000.

Local economists have said that a dearth of new home construction is putting upward pressure on sale prices for existing homes.

Paul Brewbaker, principal of local consulting firm TZ Economics, said homebuilding on Oahu is about 1,000 units per year below what is needed to accommodate new household formation. Over the past five years, annual new home production has been so low that the last time it was lower was during World War II, he said.

Another factor that has been helping drive rising home prices is relatively tight inventory of existing homes for sale, though this inventory has been on a mostly rising trend since March.

In July, there were 1,812 condos for sale, which was up from 1,554 in the same month last year and 1,749 in June.

The last time condo inventory exceeded 1,800 was February 2012, according to statistics from the trade association.

There were 1,254 single-family houses on the market in July, which was up from 1,105 a year earlier and 1,200 in June.

In May, the inventory was 1,279 but before that had not been above 1,250 since June 2012.

Inventory levels in July should help produce more sales in future months and relieve some of the upward pressure on median prices.

"This is great news for the market, where demand continues to outpace supply," Meier said.

The number of sales in July was up 3.4 percent for single-family houses to 300 from 290 a year earlier, and was up 4.2 percent for condos to 444 from 426.