No Need For Ghostbusting in This Housing Market

Owning a haunted house can be a scary proposition for some. My point of reference when thinking about a haunted house is the movie Poltergeist. I am talking about the original movie with JoBeth Williams and Craig T. Nelson. Not only did those ghosts kidnap one of their daughters but it ended up sucking the entire home into a void. Talk about depreciation.

For my nephews, the point of reference for living in a haunted house is the 1995 movie Casper. Casper the Friendly Ghost wins over James Harvey, and his daughter, Kat, by making them breakfast. A ghost that cooks? Oh baby, bring on those ghosts! I hope they know how to make enchiladas and margarita swirls!

As it turns out, I am not alone. Homeowners are down for sharing their abodes with supernatural beings, even possibly the mean ones. 

“We had so much writing this,” said Michelle Delgado, a research analyst with Clever Real Estate. Delgado said this is the third year they’ve conducted a survey gauging 1,000 Americans about their paranormal beliefs and home-buying preferences. 

“This survey speaks to how competitive the housing market is right now,” Delgado said. She said 73 percent of respondents said they would be open to purchasing a haunted home. In 2020, only 59 percent were willing to buy a home that was haunted.

But wait, it gets better.

Without taking price into consideration, 30 percent of people would gladly buy a haunted house if it meant they could live next to better schools, have a bigger yard or more square footage. Shoot, for an extra bathroom, I would make Casper breakfast.

When they conducted the survey, Delgado said they were not able to differentiate between whether the house would be haunted with good ghosts or the type of ghosts that spew blood from your pipes and send you screaming into the streets. So that means, people are willing to risk buying a haunted house that could end up in a void.

“We left it up to their imagination,” Delgado said. “People who are younger are more willing to be flexible. After being home for a year, they have gotten used to the idea of living in a haunted house.”

That is why there was a big difference in responses from the Boomer and Millennial generations.

According to the study, “Millennials are 1.7x more likely to be swayed by a better school district, 1.4x more likely to overlook a haunting in favor of more square footage, and 1.2x more likely to purchase a haunted home in a safer neighborhood.” Only three percent of Boomers would consider buying a haunted home.”

The survey also asked respondents if there was anything scarier than living in a home that is haunted. 

“What is scarier than living in a haunted house is mold, foundation repair, termites, asbestos and water damage,” Delgado said. Basically, anything that comes with an expensive price tag to fix.

What surprised Delgado the most though, was that five percent of the respondents lack basic safety precautions in their homes from smoke alarms to carbon monoxide detectors to a security system.

In other words, safety precautions meant to keep us in the world of the living are not being used. Take this as your friendly reminder that it is time to change those batteries in your smoke alarms. Make sure you continue to enjoy your home as opposed to haunting it in the future. 

To read the report in full click here.