Moving into a new home can be an exciting new journey – but not when there’s an unwanted roommate already living there. Things that go bump in the night just took on a whole new meaning when you buy a haunted house.
READ ALSO: 6 Arizona ghost towns to visit
The team at HomeAdvisor wanted to know the probability of buying a haunted house across the country. They looked at the number of homes for sale in each state and compared them to the number of “haunted homes” where homes have reports of death, homicide, and paranormal activity.
In Arizona, there is only an 8.2% chance you’ll buy a haunted house, but each state has its collection of urban legends, haunted houses, and other creepy attractions that are fun to indulge in and explore during the spooky season. Americans have always been fascinated by things that go bump in the night, especially when those things are right in their backyard. What if that backyard meant your yard? That’s right, depending on where you move, you might have a higher chance of winding up with a few new terrifying roommates of your own.
We know buying a home can be scary enough without worrying about moving into a house with paranormal residents. So, what are the odds of ending up in a flat full of ghosts in the U.S.? Our paranormal home appraisers took a deep dive into which states have the highest concentration of hauntings, and luckily for you, we’re going to share our research. Consider these findings if you ever feel like things are sunnier on the other side, or you might wind up moving in with someone from “the other side.”
Methodology
To accomplish this task, a few of our bravest souls geared up and banded together to crunch the creepy numbers. We compared the number of homes for sale in each U.S. state during August of 2022 to the number of “haunted” and “creepy” homes in every state to determine the probability rate of homebuyers in every corner of the country winding up in a Halloween house.
Unfortunately, when we arrived at our first paranormal pitstop, we were too terrified to continue. However, being the savvy data scientists we are, we now have the statistics in our possession without getting, well, possessed. Using Zillow and Redfin, we determined the number of homes for sale in each state. Afterward, HouseCreep helped us calculate the number of “creepy” and “haunted” homes in each of those states.
After a much-heated debate, our team determined the difference between a “haunted” house and a “creepy” house. Haunted houses would be based on the number of homes with previous deaths, homicides, and paranormal reports. Creepy houses would be based on the number of homes with crime, damage, drug, and sketchy reports.
The Haunted House Market
Some states are certainly spookier than others, but if you’re superstitious and afraid of ghouls and goblins, you’ll want to avoid a few places. We found that, although only the Mayflower state made it into the top five most-haunted shortlist, New England as a whole is filled to the brim with hauntings and ghost stories galore. Aside from Vermont and Maine, all of the states in the region have a haunted house probability of 15% or higher, making them some of the most haunted states in America.
In the northernmost part of the country, New York and New Jersey duke it out for the title of eeriest state on the East Coast. No matter which side of the fence you’re on in the great bagel debate, you have over a 25% chance of winding up in a haunted house in either state. However, with more condo developments and fewer natural attractions like the Pinelands or Long Beach Island, New York’s real estate developers may in fact be driving the ancient ghosts out of their original homes.
Ghosts tend to steer clear of warmer weather, as our friends in the South remain relatively untouched by the supernatural. In general, the South has the lowest number of haunted houses in America. Both Texas and West Virginia ranked the highest at just under 20% on the haunt-o-meter, while Florida surprisingly only scored 6%. Our guess is that ghosts hate sunshine.
