Low inventory is making bidding wars as common in Boise and Madison as they are in Boston and Denver.
Bloomberg reports that an improved economy and buyer confidence, rising mortgage and house prices, and a lack of new residential construction have made it tough for people to find a house. Buyers are even striking out in places such as Grand Rapids, Mich., which has seen a 27 percent drop in homes for sale over the past year.
To combat the shortage, some real estate agents have even started to cold-call current homeowners to gauge their interest in selling.
The three months through January had the fewest homes on the market on record, according to an analysis by Trulia. Prices jumped 6.9 percent in January from a year earlier, the biggest increase for any month since May 2014, data from CoreLogic Inc. show. And homes sold faster in the first two months of 2017 -- spending an average 58 days on the market -- than at the start of any year since at least 2010, according to brokerage Redfin.
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