SEATTLE — A scary number of prospective home buyers would be willing to put up with a few ghosts in the attic if those spirits happened to haunt the right home, according to the results of a new Zillow survey this Halloween season.
67% of prospective buyers said they could be convinced to buy a “haunted house” if it had appealing features, was in the right location, and was more affordable.
This shows the compromises buyers are willing to make to land a home in today's tough housing market.
Zillow's survey found that 40% of people looking to buy a home say they could be convinced to buy a haunted house if it had features such as a big backyard, a pool, or a two-car garage.
32% of buyers said the same if the home was in their desired location.
Finding a home that checks all the boxes has become challenging, with frighteningly few new listings hitting the market.
According to Zillow, home inventory is starting to creep back up, but it remains more than 10% lower than this time last year and more than 40% lower than 2019 levels.
Meanwhile, mortgage rates surpassed a 22-year high this month, slashing buying power and spooking many would-be home shoppers.
"The combination of high prices, limited inventory, and rising interest rates is creating a witches' brew of trouble for would-be homeowners," said 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."
For some brave souls, an otherworldly roommate can be a selling point. Nearly 30% of prospective buyers say they would be more likely to purchase a home if it were haunted, while 20% say ghostly apparitions wouldn't impact their purchase decision.
Either way, buyers may not know who is haunting the halls of their dream home.
Most states don't require sellers to disclose paranormal activity in the home they're selling. A spine-tingling 12% of successful buyers say their home is definitely haunted, while an additional 17% say their home may be harboring spirits, according to Zillow.
