After accounting for one out of four home sales in the depths of the housing recession and fueled turn-arounds in dozens of markets where waves of foreclosures and battered home values scared off other buyers, real estate investors today are playing a greatly diminished role in the housing recovery.

The latest Campbell/Inside Mortgage Finance HousingPulse Tracking Survey results suggest first-time homebuyers and current homeowners, not investors, are in fact the major players in this year’s marketplace.

The active presence of non-investor homebuyers is helping create a remarkably strong market for non-distressed properties leading into the important spring-summer home buying season.

HousingPulse nationwide data for March show that current homeowners continued to dominate the overall home purchase market with a 42.2 percent market share, based on a three-month moving average. While that was down from the levels seen last fall, it was still up on a year-over-year basis. First-time homebuyers stepped up their activity, reaching an eight-month market share high of 36.1 percent in March.

Investors’ share of the national housing market fell to 21.8 percent in March, down from a peak of 25.3 percent of all transactions in May 2012.

Last week a leading analyst on single family rentals also argued that the housing recovery is being driven more by buyers seeking a place to live than by investors.