A formidable housing market has the majority of home-ready folks willing to shack up with ghosts this Halloween season.
Affordability, location and appealing features make a haunted house worth buying, say 67% of prospective buyers who responded to a recent Zillow survey.
With home values at record highs and mortgage rates surpassing a 22-year high, it is indeed, a scary time to become a borrower.
"The combination of high prices, limited inventory and rising interest rates is creating a witches' brew of trouble for would-be homeowners," says Manny Garcia, a senior population scientist at Zillow. "Despite these chilling conditions, life events like job changes, coupling up and having children still drive households to buy. These shoppers have to square their budgets with important home characteristics like bedrooms, bathrooms and floor plans. When balancing so many priorities in an inventory-starved market, avoiding ghosts and ghouls doesn't always make the cut."
Buyers who plan on making a 10% down payment right now need a six-figure income to “comfortably” afford the typical home in the U.S. Additionally, inventory may be starting to creep back up, but it still remains 10% lower than this time last year, Zillow reports, and more than 40% lower than 2019 levels.
With these kinds of numbers, it’s no wonder nearly half (40%) of prospective buyers admit they “could be convinced” to buy a haunted house if it had a big backyard, a pool, a two-car garage or some other tasty traits.
A desirable location to call home is enough for 32% of buyers to join some ghostly friends.
More than a third (35%) of respondents say if this haunted house were priced lower than the rest of the market they wouldn’t mind forking up the cash for it.
Bring on the phantoms and specters, say a brave 29% of prospective buyers, for whom a haunting is actually a selling point. "Who cares?" say 20% of prospective buyers, who are indifferent to the prospect.
It would be advantageous for all of those who dare to buy right now to keep their cool at closing. After all, most U.S. states don’t actually require sellers to disclose the presence of paranormal activity in the home they're departing.
Whether or not the place they lay their head ends up being full of spirits is a mystery only new homebuyers can uncover.
Just 12% of successful buyers say their new address is “definitely” haunted, while an additional 17% aren’t quite sure if they will spend this Halloween with otherworldly beings.
