Crime Scene Stigma
Deluth News Tribune published an interesting piece on the problems owners of crime scene houses have in selling their properties. The article was inspired by the recent listing of the JonBenet Ramsey house in Boulder, Co.
A 2000 study by a professor of finance at Wright State University in Ohio found that stigmatized properties do sell for less, though not by a lot. Typically they fetch 3 percent less, said James Larsen, who conducted the study. But they do take about 45 percent longer to sell, he concluded.
There is another article in USATODAY about the same subject.
Did you know?:
A house in which a murder or other bloody crime took place typically will stay on the market from two to seven years longer than it would otherwise.
About half of the states require sellers to disclose a home’s traumatic history to buyers but some regulations mandate disclosure for only a short period of time.
The California Civil Code decrees that a death on a property need not be disclosed if it occurred three years before a sale.
In South Dakota, sellers must disclose a “human death by homicide or suicide” only if it occurred within 12 months of the sale, according to state statutes.
I know that many of the most grisly crime scene houses have been demolished instead of sold to new owners. The Sharon Tate/Roman Polanski house on Cielo drive is no longer standing, as are John Wayne Gacy house, Jeffrey Dahmer’s apartment building, and the Heaven’s Gate House.
Thank goodness that nobody tore down 92 Second Street. It was lucky that there was a business attached to the premises and it was a family home until turning into a B&B in 1996.
