Homes near graveyards garner lower prices

Living too close to a New York City cemetery may affect the value of a home, according to a sampling of Recorded Sales Compiled By The Wall Street Journal, but for some owners, living adjacent to a graveyard has its advantages.

Patrick Bombino, a Philadelphia resident with a pied-a-terre studio in a luxury high-rise in Borough Park, Brooklyn that overlooks a cemetery, said the apartment provides unobstructed views, great parking and peace and quiet.

“Another advantage is if I have to drop dead, I can jump out the window and I’m there,” he joked.

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Data from Streeteasy.com shows that homes close to a cemetery (within two blocks) are priced slightly lower than others in the same neighborhood. Homes within a two-block radius of the Mount Olivet Cemetery in the Maspeth area of Queens, N.Y. have a median sales price of $355,000. The median sales price for homes located within a 10-block radius of the cemetery is $388,000. Near the New York City Marble Cemetery in the East Village, the median sales price within a two-block radius is approximately $695,000, whereas the median sales price for homes within a roughly 10-block radius is $800,000.

“It’s probably not the best place to buy,” agent Lisa Cannata of Today Real Estate in Massachusetts told the Journal. “It’s not a great idea for the resale value because people find it eerie.” [WSJ]