LJWorld.com / Sellers ask for help of St. Joseph in slow market

Archive for Friday, March 14, 2008

By David W. Myers

March 14, 2008

When sales slow, many homeowners look for help from St. Joseph.

Q: We’ve been trying to sell our home, but haven’t had any luck because our local market is still a little slow. I have heard that burying a statue of St. Joseph in the front yard can help to find a buyer more quickly. What do you think about this practice? When did it get started? We’re getting so desperate to sell that we’re ready to try anything!

A: I’ve been writing about real estate for four decades. And without fail, I have always received a flurry of letters like yours when the housing market goes into its cyclical downturn every five to seven years. I’ll once again answer the question about St. Joe — and then hope such queries won’t be resurrected for a long time.

St. Joseph is the Catholic Church’s patron saint of homes, families and carpenters. Even church officials aren’t sure how modern-day homeowners started to believe that burying a statue of St. Joe could speed a home sale, although some say the idea stems from a group of European nuns in the Middle Ages who buried medallions of the saint and then prayed that he would provide land to build new convents — a request that was soon fulfilled.

Some sellers and real-estate agents swear the practice works, while others say that it’s a bunch of malarkey. If you try it, most believers say the statue should be buried near your for-sale sign and about a foot deep.

The statue, many say, should face toward the home but be buried upside down (the theory being that St. Joe will work extra hard to find a buyer so he can be unearthed and stand upright again).

Church officials generally agree that it’s not blasphemous to bury a statue of St. Joseph in your yard, provided that you dig it up after the property is sold, give it a good scrubbing and then place it on your hearth or other place of honor in your next home.

Several Catholic bookstores and Internet retailers even sell “St. Joseph home-selling kits” for $5 or $10, replete with a statue, prayer card, accessories and directions.