Home Sellers Bury Statues of St. Joseph

[NVMojo]

BOSTON (AP) - Judy Moore knew she was going to have trouble selling the home with the really steep driveway. For help, she turned not to an advertiser or a fellow real estate agent, but to someone she hadn't used since the last slowdown in the housing market: St. Joseph.

She buried a figurine of the Roman Catholic saint upside down in the home's yard. And soon, sure enough, she had her sale.

"I've seen all different kinds of markets, and I do believe pulling from whatever powers I can to make it work," said Moore, an agent in the Boston suburb of Lexington. "Sometimes just baking bread doesn't do it anymore."

Now that the red-hot housing market of the past five years has begun to cool off, homeowners and real estate agents from Boston's heavily Italian North End to California are doing whatever they can to clinch a sale, and that includes putting their faith in a small, plastic statue of a saint.

Sellers of religious merchandise say sales of St. Joseph statues have shot up over the past year all over the country.

more...

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/nat-gen/2006/sep/18/091805243.html

[CatholicEdHead]

1. I recieved a WSJ news alert that says it is the slowest since 1991

For the housing market. Things are going so well. :sarcasm:

[Warpy]

23. Yep, last time we had a Bush in office, the economy went to hell

and for much the same reason. That family are like locusts, stripping everything bare and wrecking what they can't grab.

The fast buck artists who snapped up a renovated house near me for a quick resale and a quick $30,000 profit have a big sign out front "REDUCED!" It's priced well below Zillow but nobody's even looked at it in the last 3 months.

It's still not gonna budge in this market. There are now 2 houses for sale on my street. Five are paid off, no chance of foreclosure.

[bluerum]

2. This used to be bury a statue of the Virgin Mary upside down

in the yard a few years ago didn't it?

[Maureen54]

6. St. Joseph

Nope, always St Joseph ( the patron saint of home/families)

[NYC]

20. Why upside down?

Welcome to DU. :hi:

[susanna]

24. When I dug my garden...

...I found multiple saint medallions and statuettes. They were placed over a lot of ground to the point where I got genuinely freaked. I reburied each of them where I found them, just a little deeper. That said, lots of folks would buy my house in a heartbeat according to this article...it's pretty holy, evidently. :-)

[CountAllVotes]

26. I've never heard of this ever

and I happen to be a Catholic (not a great one though admittedly - maybe I missed something?). :wtf:

[notadmblnd]

3. I saw this on one of those sell my house shows

over the weekend. Can't remember if it was Bravo or A&E. some guy moving to Mexico because he couldn't stand the bush administration wasn't selling his house fast enough, so he buried the statue of the idol in his back yard. He sold his house in the next week or so but at a substantial discount.

[Fridays Child]

4. My realtor insisted on burying St. Joseph in my yard...

...after a year of no interest in my property. It sold within a few weeks but only after I listed it with a different company. When she came back for her statue, I thanked her for the helpful boost. Boy, was she ever snippy!

:rofl:

[cspanlovr]

5. That is seriously fucked up. But I did hear that if you

chew gum, wrap it in an old banana peal, put it up in your closet for 6 mos., you'll get high if you chew it.:crazy:

[DancingBear]

7. They've been doing that for years

While it makes a nice "gee, the housing market sucks" story, the upside-down lady has abeen a mainstay in Catholic households for years.

I remember people doing it 40 years ago.

[hippiechick]

8. Yep, I've heard of it ...

... whatever floats their boats, IMO.

[kedrys]

9. Doesn't that qualify as patron saint abuse?

Inquiring minds want to know. :P

[htuttle]

10. Have they tried throwing a virgin into the volcano yet?

[AnneD]

25. No...

they only do that in Hawaii. Good thing it is so pretty there that people want to buy/I don't think there are many virgins left.

[Ezlivin]

11. They tried burying Jesus statues, but they kept popping up every 3 days

N/T

[BadgerKid]

12. Trying for a rise out of us? ;-) n/t

[NVMojo]

13. BAAAAA-WHAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

[Atman]

17. OMG! Two "best post of the day" posts today!

:rofl:

Here's the other...read post #4!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=115&topic_id=67821&mesg_id=67821

[crim son]

14. My MIL had my STBE husband bury the St. Joe upside

dowon in the garden of our last house. It took two years to sell! Need I say that no statue is buried anywhere near our current home, also on the market...?

[shrike]

15. It worked for my aunt and uncle

But that wasn't a particularly slow market.

You know things are desperate when people who aren't even religious start doing these things. I heard of a Jewish couple near us, burying a statue.

[Coventina]

16. And that is not witchcraft, how?

It makes my heart smile to see good Christians casting spells.

Bless their little secretly-pagan hearts!

:-)

[LeftyMom]

18. Secretly?

Half the saints are just pagan deities with the serial numbers filed off.

[Lisa]

21. "with the serial numbers filed off" -- I love it!

I just finished teaching a water resources lecture today, LeftyMom -- where I showed the class pics of various Celtic holy wells which were taken over by the Church as "saintly" attractions, and now by our new religion, commercialism (Evian and Perrier, for example).

[Kelvin Mace]

19. When all else fails

try superstition.

[donco6]

22. My realtor gave us one.

I refused to use it. It sat on a shelf. We sold the house anyway.