To be fair, not everyone who dies in a house is the victim of some highly publicized, gruesome slaying. People spend much of their lives in their houses — especially later in life — and so loads of homes have housed death. On that note, the bluntly named search site Died in House allows folks to search to see who died of what at which address across the United States. This includes deaths by suicide, murder, and more.
On that note, Realtor.com’s sell price percentages take all such deaths into account, not merely the high-profile ones. Aside from murder houses selling for 21% less than their previous price, they also typically sell for 9% less than their listed prices, 15% less than other houses in their zip code, and stay on the market for 47 days longer than non-murder hours (137 days vs. 90 days). Such figures indicate disinterest amongst the public for obvious reasons, but also probably depict less of a difference than many folks would imagine.
As The Guardian describes, some ordinary buyers simply don’t mind or care. Homeowner Louise Bloomfield, for instance, calls her house’s publicized murder a “part of the heritage of the northeast.” She also says, “I always felt her [the victim’s] ghost here.” Others like Abigail Denton reported similarly, saying, “It doesn’t bother us; it’s a house, that’s it.” Auctioneer Andy Thompson, in fact, believes that occupancy by the living is a necessary component to “cleansing” a property.
