"The house near the graveyard" may sound like the setting description to a horror film, but in New Orleans its just a normal description of a location to a home. New Orleanians don't fear living in close proximity to our cemeteries, in fact a new study has found that this close proximity can actually come at a premium.
Trulia recently mapped U.S. cemeteries, mortuaries, and funeral homes using Yelp and GeoNames. Their researchers ran a linear regression model using housing prices as an independent variable and whether that home is within a quarter mile of a cemetery, funeral home, or mortuary as a dependent variable. Researchers controlled for the following variables: bedrooms, number of bathrooms, square footage, and zip codes. The study found that homebuyers in New Orleans were willing to spend an extra 6.9% more for a home located within a quarter mile of a cemetery, funeral home, or mortuary.
New Orleans topped the list in this study done by Trulia. Researchers found that Silver Spring, Maryland came in second place with their residents being willing to shell out 6.3% more to live near the dead. The metro city that came in third place in this study was Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Those residents were willing to spend 5% more for homes near graveyards.
Prior to this study, everyone knew tourists love to come to New Orleans to view our unique above ground cemeteries but it turns out our residents love to live near them too. I guess that's why they call us the City of the Dead.
*Information for this article was obtained by: Nola Curbed