WASHINGTON — Median home prices fell in more than three-quarters of U.S. cities, including Honolulu, in the second quarter, according to new data yesterday. It was the latest sign of the breadth of the housing market decline.

Nevertheless, home sales rose in a few areas where the market is flooded with foreclosures, indicating that buyers are taking advantage of steep discounts.

Nevada and California, battered by a housing market bust, were the only states to show sales gains in the second quarter compared with a year earlier, according to the National Association of Realtors.

Sales were up 18 percent in Nevada compared with last year, as median prices fell by nearly 24 percent in the Las Vegas area. Sales in California were up 3.7 percent. Prices in Los Angeles, Riverside and Sacramento have plunged by 30 percent or more, according to the NAR's data.

Nationally, sales fell by 16.3 percent in the second quarter, compared with the same period a year ago.

In Honolulu, the median sales price of a single-family home fell to $636,000 in the second quarter, a 4.4 percent decline from $649,900 in the second quarter of 2007.

The median condominium price, meanwhile, rose to $330,000, up 0.6 percent from $328,000 a year earlier.

Statewide, sales of single-family homes and condos combined tumbled 31 percent in the second quarter from the same period a year earlier.

In recent months nationwide, the biggest home sales gains "have been in some of the markets with the steepest and fastest price drops," said Lawrence Yun, the trade group's chief economist. "Buyers in these areas are responding to deeply discounted home prices."

The Realtors group said median prices of existing single-family homes dropped in 115 of 150 metropolitan areas in the April-June period, while 35 metro areas saw prices increase.

Among the bright spots, prices of homes sold rose by more than 7 percent in Yakima, Wash., Binghamton, N.Y., Amarillo, Texas, and Charles-ton, W.Va.

Nationally, the median home price — the point where half the homes sold for more and half for less — fell to $206,500 in the second quarter, down by 7.6 percent from the same period a year ago, when it was $223,500.

As foreclosures soar, banks and mortgage investors are facing a pileup of such properties on their books and are cutting prices dramatically in some areas.