In Down Market Home Sellers Turn to Saint Joseph

Tales of home sellers burying a plastic statue of St. Joseph are not new.  But recently, the Wall Street Journal compared sales figures of the statue with home sales and found when home sales are down, St. Joseph sales are up.

According to online webstore Catholic Supply, during the recession in 2009 to 2010 when home sales plummeted, sales of the St. Joseph statues more than doubled.

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Amazon.com has several statue kits, ranging in price from $3.00 to $13.00.   Instructions are specific.  The statue is to buried upside down in the yard, facing the house.  Once the house sells, owners are expected to dig up the statue and bring it to the new home, displayed in a place of honor.  

Interestingly, Catholic Supply says a large part of it's sales are to brokerage firms around the country.  This realtor does not use the statue as part of a listing presentation.  Yet. 

Some home sellers swear by the statue's effectiveness, as evidenced by a sampling of reviews on amazon.   

I was struggling with selling my house and a girlfriend of mine told me about Saint Joseph helping sell your house. I figured it was worth a shot.... Within 2 weeks we hot an offer on the house!  Katherine O'Brien

Within 10 days of being put on the MLS. This is the second time he helped me, last time in New York when the real estate market was dying, he also helped my son and daughter-in-law - the first person to view their house bought it after St Joseph was buried and an old boyfriend who had his house for sale for years and just kept lowering the price sold within 3 weeks after burying him.  Barbara Calderon

Before i got the statue, I had 19 showings of my house with no offers. Upon receiving the statue, I buried it according to the instructions that came with the statue. Eight days later, I received an offer on my house and sold it. Thank you st. Joseph!
 Donald Kocs