ST. LOUIS–Have a high percentage of Millennials among your members as well as a certain foreclosed home you’re having trouble selling? Today may be your day.
A new survey—which also reveals in which states people are most/least likely to believe in the supernatural–of 1,000 Americans to determine their supernatural beliefs by researcher Dr. Francesca Ortegren found some exciting insights just in time for Halloween. The survey was conducted by Clever.
Top-Line Findings
- Millennials were 13x more likely to buy a haunted house and many would pay more for a haunted house
- Even if someone doesn't believe in the supernatural, they're still likely to avoid purchasing a haunted house. One-half of the non-believers said they'd be less likely to buy a house that's haunted.
- People are more likely to purchase a home where a pornographic film had been filmed than if it was reported haunted.
According to Clever, the results of the survey suggest that people are much more concerned with the potential for crime than being haunted by ghosts: More than 75% of respondents said they'd be less likely to buy a home if it was located in a crime-heavy area, near a prison, or was previously used as a meth lab. In contrast, only 54% were put off by the idea of purchasing a haunted home.
Other Findings
Among the other findings:
- One in four supernatural believers reported they're more likely to buy a home if it was haunted, someone died there of natural causes or murder, or it was located near a cemetery.
- People who have had a supernatural experience in a home are 13x more likely to pay more for that house than people who had never had a supernatural experience in their home.
- Millennials are 17x more likely to pay more for a haunted home for it than Baby Boomers (but this might be due to financial reasons).
- Half of those who said they'd pay more were willing to pay up to 50% more for a haunted home.
- Most people who said they'd pay less for a home would pay up to 25% less (41% of respondents), 34% said they'd pay up to 50% less, and 25% would pay up to 75% less for the home.
Do You Believe?
Almost half (44%) of survey respondents in the Clever survey said they believed in the supernatural. And half of those believers said they'd experienced a supernatural event in their home (compared to only 8% of people who don't believe in the supernatural).
Supernatural believers are more likely to be Millennials, female, or homeowners. All three of these groups were more likely to have experienced a supernatural event than their counterparts, as well.
Location-Based Differences
There are also differences based on location, Clever reported. More than half of the respondents in Oklahoma (67%), Kentucky (63%), Texas (61%), Missouri (59%), New York (57%), and Arkansas (54%) reported believing in the paranormal. Contrarily, the majority of people in our survey from Mississippi (60%), Indiana (59%), Illinois (56%), and Arizona (55%) said they didn't believe.
Interestingly, the states with the highest concentration of paranormal believers weren't always where ghosts like to reveal themselves. Instead, Missouri (50%), Oklahoma (42%), Colorado (40%), New York (38%), and South Carolina (38%) were top-ranking. Arizonans (0%), Minnesotans (8%), Tennesseans (11%), North Carolinians (11%), and Pennsylvanians (13%) had the fewest encounters with the paranormal, Clever reported.
The full study can be found here.