Pasco Fire Chief Bob Gear may have moved into his new job in January, but finding a house in his new city has been more of a challenge.

Gear, formerly the chief of Benton Fire District 1, and his wife Rhonda easily sold their old house in Kennewick earlier this month. But because of a dwindling housing inventory they're having a hard time finding a new home in their price range.

"I thought we'd have trouble selling and it would be a buyers' market," Bob Gear said. "It's exactly the opposite of what I expected."

Tri-City real estate agents are reporting that homes priced at less than about $325,000 are selling fast and inventory is dropping.

"If we list a nice property under $250,000, we're seeing it sold within 30 days," said Dave Retter, designated broker and co-owner of Windermere Tri-Cities. "If we list a home under $150,000, and it's a nice home priced in the market, we're seeing it sold in 10 days."

In a balanced market -- meaning it would take about six months at a similar sales rate to sell the current inventory if no new homes came on the market -- such homes take an average of 60 days to sell, Retter said.

Gear said his Kennewick home sold for $248,500 in 24 days and had two other offers.

"It's a sellers' market," he said.

The couple are looking for a three- to four-bedroom rambler in west Pasco with a three-car garage or a shop, he said, priced between $200,000 to $300,000.

They've found a few they like recently, but the homes went under contract before the Gears were able to make a move.

Their agent, Jennifer Ralston of Coldwell Banker Tomlinson Associated Brokers in Kennewick, said there are only a handful of homes that meet those specifications.

"We don't even have a month's (supply)," she said.

Another set of buyers, Laura and Jon Strycker of Pasco, also had a hard time finding a house to meet their needs.

The couple, who have two young daughters, had been renting an apartment and started thinking about buying their first home last summer.

They wanted three bedrooms and two bathrooms with at least 1,200 square feet of space, Laura Strycker said.

And they didn't want to spend more than $135,000.

They got serious about their hunt last fall and put in an offer on a house only to find out another buyer had outbid them.

So they kept looking.

The couple finally found the right house in December and closed in January, taking advantage of the $8,000 first-time homebuyer tax credit.

"Houses were either out of our price range ... or smaller than we preferred," she said.

There were 161 homes priced at $100,000 to $150,000 on the market as of June 10, Retter said, less than half the 332 in the same price range on the market at the same time last year.

And in the $150,000 to $200,000 range, there were 193 homes listed for sale as of June 10, compared with 278 a year ago, he said.

He and other agents attribute the shrinking availability of homes in lower price ranges to tighter lending for new construction.

"We're not continuing to put units up as our population continues to grow," said Paul Roy of Coldwell Banker Tomlinson Associated Brokers. "We're seeing that in our dwindling inventory."

Doug Bayne, vice president and director of marketing for Banner Bank, said the bank has seen a slowdown in applications for residential home construction loans.

But Banner is making $10 million in loans for spec homes in June across its coverage area of Washington, Idaho and Oregon, he said.

"Of all the market areas we're in, the Tri-Cities continues to be one of the more strong areas," Bayne said.