Burial plots for sale and other morbid trends
Posted
Aug 25 2009, 11:46 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Even death can't take a holiday from the great recession. Consider:
- More people are selling family burial plots to cover living expenses (unlike the Beverly Hills woman who auctioned off a crypt above that of Marilyn Monroe -- see below).
- More people are dying broke and are cremated or buried at potter's field -- because their families are too strapped to help out. "This problem used to be unique to just indigents who either had no family or were living on the street or homeless," P. Michael Murphy, the county coroner in Las Vegas, told Time. "We are now seeing folks expressing this concern who are recently unemployed or their house is in foreclosure ...."
No firm statistics are available on how many people are selling burial plots, but the number of for-sale-by-owner and plot brokerage Web sites is a good indication.
"Baron Chu, owner of California burial resale site Plot Brokers, says listings have grown at least tenfold in the past year," Las Vegas Sun reporter Abigail Goldman wrote.
(We even found a site that suggested you buy burial plots now and resell them later at a profit. That's cold.)
Often the people who are selling are desperate for cash. Debbie Jenkins, who'd lost two homes to foreclosure and was living in an unheated garage, advertised two plots -- for more than half off the $8,000 they were worth -- on Craigslist, according to The Washington Post. "Shoot, I'd probably sell them for $1,500 to be able to eat or fix my car," she said.
Meanwhile, hard evidence mounts that more people are being cremated or buried by their local county as indigents.
- Las Vegas: The number of indigents buried or cremated by Clark County, Nev., grew by 22% in the last year, Abigail reported in another Las Vegas Sun story.
- Detroit: "Across the board, I'm finding the numbers are on the rise of either families who are not coming forward to claim bodies or they're signing releases saying they can't afford to bury someone, which taxes the county resources because then the county is responsible for burying these people," Albert Samuels of the medical examiner's office in Wayne County, Mich., told Time.
- LA: The Los Angeles Times reports, "The county morgue, which is responsible for the indigent and others who go unclaimed, saw a 25% increase in cremations in the first half of this year over the same period a year ago, rising to 680 from 545."
- An Associated Press story noted an increase in Ohio, North Carolina and West Virginia.
What do you need to know in these situations?
- Don't expect the cemetery to buy a burial plot back, and don't count on a quick sale. Abigail said the average time a gravesite spends on the market is 15 months.
- Cremation generally costs $500-plus, and the median cost of a traditional funeral is $7,300, according to AP. The no-frills county service costs taxpayers about $150 for cremation and $1,400 for burial. For more information about your options, visit the Funeral Consumers Alliance Web site.
- If you are planning a funeral, keep it simple if cost is a concern. Read "A funeral needn't be costly."
For levity's sake, we'll mention the story of Elsie Poncher, who auctioned her husband's crypt on eBay so she can retire the mortgage on her Beverly Hills home. The crypt, purchased from Joe DiMaggio years ago, is prime real estate, right above Marilyn Monroe's resting place.
The LA Times reports that the highest bidder, at $4.6 million, subsequently backed out. Other high bidders are being contacted. Poncher's husband will be moved to the crypt purchased for her. She's opting for cremation.
Related reading:
Plan a funeral for $800 or less
Steps you must take when someone dies
Plan -- and pay for -- your own funeral
