Trulia, a national real estate shopping site, says that its data shows asking prices rose 1.4 percent in March compared to the month prior, reversing years of decline.

Asking prices are typically higher than the final contract price.

Asking prices increased month-over-month 0.9 percent in March and 0.6 percent in February. The figure is seasonally adjusted to account for the normal bump up in springtime home sales, Trulia said.

Rental prices also continued to climb, up 5 percent year over year, the firm reported.

“Asking prices rose in February and March, but this doesn’t mean that the bottom is forever behind us. The robo-signing settlement will accelerate the foreclosure process, pushing more homes onto the market and dragging down prices in areas that suffered most from the housing crash,” said Jed Kolko, Trulia’s chief economist.

“Meanwhile, some relief is in sight for strapped renters as the wave of new multi-family buildings that broke ground in 2011 will be completed later this year.”

Unadjusted for seasonality, asking prices rose 2.4 percent quarter over quarter. According to the site, asking prices had been declining prior to February and reached a low in January.

Throughout 2011, asking prices rose slightly in several months of the year, but never more than 0.2 percent in a month. Asking prices in March were 0.7 percent below their level one year earlier.

Housing tracker CoreLogic said last week that final sale prices for homes continued to decline in February, but that the declines had slowed.

Sale prices were down 0.8 percent from January and 2 percent from the year before, CoreLogic said.

"The deceleration in the pace of decline is a first step toward ultimately growing again," CoreLogic chief economist Mark Fleming said.