With home sales reaching multi-year highs and prices outpacing expectations in the first quarter, the housing recovery is restoring public confidence in homeownership and raising questions about the future demand for expansion of single and multi-family rental capacity.

Even though first-time home buyers are frustrated by difficulties getting financing and meager inventories of entry-level homes for sale, the robust recovery seems to be changing public attitudes towards homeownership.

In its quarterly forecast last week, Fannie Mae’s economists projected that existing-home sales, which were up 9.4 percent last year, will grow by an additional 6.9 percent this year, to 4.98 million homes, compared to last month’s projection of a 10.5 percent jump this year, to 5.15 million homes. They estimated existing-home sales will rise 5.5 percent in 2014, to 5.26 million homes, compared to last month’s prediction of a 6.2 percent rise.