Research firm Zillow reported home prices rose 5.9% last year and should be up another 3.3% in 2013.

As ought to be expected, given the magnitude of the drop in some markets and only modest downturn in others, the recovery has not been even. Zillow’s data show:

In many areas, the past few years have been quite the roller coaster. In the Phoenix metro, for example, home values peaked in the first quarter of 2006 at $282,600. They bottomed in the third quarter of 2011 at $123,900. From peak to trough, a period of roughly five years, home values in the Phoenix area fell by a staggering 56.2 percent. But over the past year, home values in the Phoenix metro shot up by 22.5 percent — and are expected to rise another 8.5 percent in 2013. Several other metros, including Las Vegas and Miami, experienced similar rides over the past few years.

Zillow’s forecast should provide relief to residents of some of the areas most damaged by the housing debacle. Cities that have had high foreclosure rates, large drops in home prices and high unemployment are expected to surge next year. Among these are Riverside, Calif., where prices are expected to up 12.5%% this year, Sacramento, where the increase is expected to be 11.9%, Phoenix, where residents should expect an 8.5% gain, San Francisco, where Zillow expects home prices to rise 7.3% as they are in Los Angeles. Two other California cities follow — San Diego and San Jose at 6.7% and 6.6% respectively.

At the other end of the spectrum, home prices will barely rise, or in some cases may fall. The value of residential real estate is expected to drop 0.6% in Chicago, 0.1% in St Louis, and to rise 0.1% in Charlotte, and0 .4% in Cincinnati.

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