Scared man in bed
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In a survey, 23% of Americans said they’ve lived in a haunted house and an additional 20% may have. 

SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Nearly 60% of people who have lived in a haunted house didn’t know it was haunted before they moved in, according to realtor.com’s, fourth annual Haunted Real Estate Report.

 

The survey of 1,000 people across the United States was conducted by Toluna Research through online interviews.

Some of the spooky findings

  • 43% of respondents may have had a ghost roommate.
  • 58% of respondents said they have never lived in a haunted home
  • 23% of respondents said they have lived in one (58% had no idea it was haunted before moving in, but 37% did and decided to go for it anyway.)
  • 20% think they may have lived in one.

What made you think your house was haunted?

  • 65% said strange house noises made them think so
  • 52% saw strange shadows in the house
  • 48% said items moved on their own
  • 47% said certain rooms felt haunted
  • 46% said they felt a touch
  • 44% said the home had hot and cold spots

“Moving into a new home is a really exciting time, but finding out that your new abode has an unwanted guest can definitely put a damper on the celebration,” says Nate Johnson, realtor.com’s chief marketing officer. “We conduct this survey annually and it’s always interesting to see the results. This year, we were surprised by how many people had unknowingly moved into a haunted house at some point in their lives, and even more so by how many people knew and decided to move in regardless.”

Would you move into a haunted house?

When asked if they would ever consider moving into a haunted house, 54% of respondents said there was no way, while 21% were prepared to brave any spooky happenings plaguing the house, and 21% were on the fence and responded with “maybe.”

Interestingly, survey responses weren’t that different if the homebuyer didn’t actually buy the home. When asked what they would do if they inherited a haunted house, 51% said they would sell it immediately, but 23% would try to flush the ghosts out by renovating the home; 20% are willing to take the risk and simply move in, while 6% said they’d tear the place down.

A ghost next door?

While only one in five respondents (21%) were okay living in a haunted house, almost half of them (43%) were willing to live next door to one. Still, 31% aren’t willing to risk it even if the house next door is haunted.

© 2019 Florida Realtors®