"We think we'd go down another 3 or 4 percent over the next 12 months, probably bottoming sometime next year," Simon said on "Surveillance Midday" with Tom Keene. "One month doesn't change anything."

Robert Shiller, a Yale University economics professor and co-creator of the home-price index, also said prices may be poised to fall further.

"I'm more concerned about the downside than most people," Shiller said yesterday on Bloomberg Radio. "I could see it staying languishing and edging down for years."

Foreclosure filings in the U.S. fell in the first quarter to their lowest level in more than four years after lenders under legal scrutiny slowed actions against delinquent homeowners, according to RealtyTrac Inc. Home seizures will increase as banks work through the backlog following a settlement by loan servicers over faulty mortgage practices, the Irvine, California-based data firm forecasts.

Meyer, senior economist with Bank of America in New York, said the recovery will be led by the parts of the country with fewer foreclosures and more job growth. She estimates that U.S. prices will reach bottom this year and stay little changed until 2014, when they may gain about 2.5 percent.

Home values in more than half of major U.S. markets will probably reach a bottom by the end of the year, according to Seattle-based Zillow Inc. Signs that the market is close to a trough include improving home sales and rising prices in some areas, said Chief Economist Stan Humphries. The market, which has been bolstered by investors, second-home buyers, and retirees, will need more traditional first-time and trade-up buyers to return for a rebound, he said.

'Healing' Market

"I characterize 2012 as a year in which the market is healing and the bottoming process is playing out," Humphries said in a telephone interview.

Median prices averaged 5.8 percent higher in March than a year earlier in 53 metro areas surveyed for a monthly housing report by Re/Max LLC, the Denver-based company said in an April 16 report. It was the second consecutive month that home prices increased year-over-year and the ninth straight month of higher sales volume, according to the report.

"This year's selling season is shaping up to be the strongest we've seen in years," Margaret Kelly, Re/Max's chief executive officer, said in a statement. "Although we don't expect home prices to rise in every market at the same rate, the worst is definitely behind us, and a slow, steady recovery is taking hold."

U.S. home prices compiled by CoreLogic, a Santa Ana, California-based real estate information service, had month- over-month gains in January and February when sales of distressed properties were excluded, said Fleming, the company's chief economist.