Growing number of US homebuyers face shortage of properties for sale

Beth Heinen Bell and her husband, Christian, are sick of renting. They want more space. They'd like to host friends for dinner. And now, having seen the real estate market start to rebound, they want to turn housing payments into long-term equity.

So after a decade as someone else's tenant, the Bells, like a rising number of Americans, are finally ready to buy a home. Yet they're running into an obstacle that's keeping the national housing recovery in check: there aren't enough homes for sale.

The housing shortage around Grand Rapids, a city known for its furniture industry and sleek downtown hospital complex, is fairly typical of what the country as a whole is facing this spring.

Some markets on the east and west coasts have grown red-hot. A handful of other cities remain depressed nearly four years after the recession ended. But many more are like Grand Rapids, a city of roughly 1 million that is recovering slowly but steadily.

Like so many others, this Midwestern city 240 kilometres west of Detroit never experienced either the buyer frenzy or the price collapse that marked the boom and bust. Yet it, too, was affected. Prices fell. Homeowners lost equity. And now, many remain unable or unwilling to sell.

The shortage of homes is occurring just as ordinary Americans want to buy again. More of them feel confident about their jobs and retirement accounts. Mortgage rates are near historic lows. And prices are rising again, easing fears that new buyers might lose their investment.