The year-over-year increase in U.S. home prices was the smallest since 2012, according to CoreLogic’s nationwide home price report.

December was the ninth consecutive month of cooling home price gains across the country, according to the report.

“Higher mortgage rates slowed home sales and price growth during the second half of 2018,” said Frank Nothaft, chief economist for CoreLogic. “Annual price growth peaked in March and averaged 6.4 percent during the first six months of the year.

“In the second half of 2018, growth moderated to 5.2 percent,” he said. “For 2019, we are forecasting an average annual price growth of 3.4 percent.”

Prices were up more than 11 percent from a year ago in Las Vegas and were 5.6 percent higher in Denver.

Even with the slowdown in nationwide home price gains, CoreLogic says that 40 percent of housing markets around the country were overvalued at the end of the year.

The study defines an overvalued housing market as one where home prices are at least 10 percent above sustainable levels.