Home prices rose in September, according to data released today by a closely watched survey.

Data through September reported a modest drop, 0.9 percent, in Boston area home prices from August of this year, but showed a 1.9 percent increase over the same quarter last year.

The S&P/Case-Shiller composite index of 20 metropolitan areas gained 1.1 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis. On a non-seasonally adjusted basis, prices increased 2.2 percent.

Prices in the 20 cities climbed 3.6 percent over the same period last year.

 "Thirteen of the 20 cities recorded positive monthly returns; Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Cleveland and New York saw modest drops in home prices in September as compared to August; Tampa and Washington D.C. were flat. With six months of consistently rising home prices, it is safe to say that we are now in the midst of a recovery in the housing market," David Blitzer, chairman of the index committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices, said in a statement.

"September will likely be the last hurrah for Case-Shiller in 2012 in terms of monthly gains. We expect the monthly numbers to be negative for the balance of the year, due to seasonality and increased prevalence of foreclosures in the sales mix," Dr. Stan Humphries, chief economist of real estate portal Zillow, said in a statement.

Humphries continued, "This shouldn’t, however, be a cause for concern as the Case-Shiller indices will still end the year up more than 3 percent from year-ago levels, clear evidence of a durable housing recovery. Hopefully lawmakers will cooperate in keeping the housing market on track by successfully navigating the fiscal cliff,"

Phoenix recorded the highest increase in annual rate, up 20.4% from its September 2011 level. Chicago and New York were the only two cities that fared worse year-over-year with respective annual rates of -1.5 and -2.3 percent.