1 in 4 Homeowners Believe They’ve Lived in a Real Haunted House

The only thing scarier than paying too high of a commission to sell your home… Is realizing that you don’t have too while getting even MORE service and support than most brokerages offer at a higher fee!

Written by Jaime Dunaway-Seale

Nearly 3 in 4 Americans (71%) believe some properties are inherently more likely to be bewitched. Although hospitals, graveyards, and theaters are prime haunts for ghosts, so are American homes.

The turrets and trims of Victorian-style homes are most closely associated with haunted houses, but paranormal beings can take up residence in a variety of dwellings. Thanks to popular social media accounts such as Zillowtastrophes, the horrifying interiors of seemingly ordinary homes are just a click away.

More than 1 in 4 respondents (29%) believe they’ve lived in a real haunted house. Of those, 27% knew the house was haunted and still chose to live there — a slight decline from the 31% who said the same in 2022.

Americans are more likely to believe they’ve lived in a haunted house if they already believe in the supernatural.

Millennials are the most likely to believe in the paranormal. Consequently, they are also the most likely to say they’ve roomed with ghosts. About 1 in 3 millennials (35%) claim they’ve lived in a haunted house, making them 2x more likely than boomers (15%) to say so.

Haunted houses may scare off some buyers, but they can be surprisingly desirable to those who are more terrified of today’s high home prices.

A lower price convinced 40% of those who have lived in a haunted house to knowingly buy one, but that percentage is down from 69% in 2022. It’s possible that after two straight quarters of declining home sale prices, optimistic buyers are prioritizing homes that don’t come with unwanted roommates.

Americans also overlooked a few ghouls in exchange for:

•          More square footage (38%)
•          A larger yard or more land (38%)
•          A better school district (34%)

A better school district is the only factor that would make home buyers more likely to purchase a haunted house this year (34%) than in the previous year (28%). That’s because savvy home buyers know that houses in a good school district retain their resale value in case of a market crash.

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