March was a month of small gains for Oahu home purchases and prices, but a report released Thursday also shows many more homeowners got into the market by listing their property for sale.

The Honolulu Board of Realtors reported that median prices ticked up 4 percent for previously owned single-family houses and condominiums last month compared with a year earlier, while the number of sales rose the same amount for single-family houses and just 1 percent for condos.

For single-family homes the median sale price was $752,000 in March, up from $725,000 in the same month last year.

The condo median sale price was $400,000 last month, up from $385,000 a year earlier.

Sue Ann Lee, president of the local Realtors trade association and a broker with Properties of the Pacific, described last month’s median prices and sale volume as “holding steady” in a written statement.

Lee also said new inventory of homes surged by about 30 percent last month as more people listed their homes for sale.

The number of new listings — 492 single-family homes and 754 condos — exceeded the number of new properties added to the market during any month going back at least two years.

Last month’s new listings represented jumps of 19 percent from a year earlier and 32 percent from February for single-family homes. And for condos the count represented gains of 14 percent from a year earlier and 33 percent from February.

Scott Higashi, CEO of brokerage firm Locations LLC, said in an interview that there didn’t appear to be an event triggering the surge in new listings, but that the additions are welcomed in a market with relatively low inventory.

“New inventory is definitely good news for us,” he said. “We’ll see if it continues.”

Relatively low inventory, Scott said, is a strong factor as to why prices keep going up. He noted that mortgage interest rates were about 10 percent higher in March then they were a year earlier but that demand hasn’t let up.

Interest rates are “clearly not affecting the pace of the market,” he said. “There is still a lot of pent-up demand.”

The number of single-family home sales ticked up 4 percent in March to 309 from 297 a year earlier. For condos, sales edged up 1 percent to 495 from 491 in the same period.

Total inventory stood at 1,159 single-family homes at the end of last month. That was up from 1,012 in February but was lower than many months over the last two years including a peak of 1,354 in August 2015.

For condos, inventory was at 1,712 at the end of March. That was up from 1,525 a month earlier but still was lower than many months over the past two years, including a peak of 2,040 in July 2015.

Local economists have generally said that Oahu’s home price appreciation, which has been running five straight years between 3 and 8 percent annually, is being driven by relatively little new home building, low interest rates and good demand from buyers fueled by job and income growth.

The University of Hawaii Economic research organization recently predicted that more of the same would continue through 2019 for the median price, which is a point where half the sales are at a lower price and half at a higher price.

Paul Brewbaker of Honolulu-based TZ Economics said in a January presentation that Oahu home prices appeared to be on a “steady path” rising about 5 percent, which he characterized as “not too hot, not too cold.”

However, more recently Brewbaker said in an email that he’s not certain how steady that path is because of potential major changes to federal tax policy under President Donald Trump, and concern Brewbaker has that federal fiscal policy changes could spark unexpected inflation.