SEATTLE—The National Association of Realtorsmay be reporting that growth in home prices—including for-saleapartments along with single-family houses—moderated last month,but Zillow is taking a long-term view. Within thenext year, Seattle-based Zillow predicts, home values in more than1,000 US communities will be higher than ever.

Although home values nationwide are still 13.5% below their 2007peak, Zillow says the housing recession is “almost entirely in therearview mirror” in 1,080 of the more than 8,700 cities and townsit covers. They're expected to surpass their pre-recession peaks bythe first quarter of 2015, if they haven't done so already.

“This is a remarkable milestone coming only two and a half yearsafter the end of the worst housing recession since the GreatDepression, and is a testament to just how robust this housingrecovery has been," says Stan Humphries, Zillow'schief economist. “So far, this steady appreciation has not createdaffordability issues in the majority of places. But there are ahandful of markets where affordability is again a challenge, evenwith mortgage interest rates incredibly low.”