California home sales surged in December, capping a year of steady sales growth and modest price gains, a research firm said Wednesday.

The median price of new and existing single-family homes and condominiums reached $415,000, up 0.6 percent from $412,500 in November and up 7.8 percent from $385,000 in December 2014, CoreLogic Inc. said. It was the 46th straight month of annual price gains in percentage terms, though increases have been single-digit for nearly two years.

“Overall the story, especially in California, is we continue to slow down, but it’s actually not a bad thing,” said Svenja Gudell, chief economist at Zillow. “We’re reaching more sustainable levels of home value appreciation.”

Read more at The Sacramento Bee