Matrix Blog

Posts Tagged ‘Catholic Supply of St. Louis Inc.’

It’s St. Joseph’s Day – What Does It Tell Us About Housing Trends?

March 19, 2014 | 11:16 am | |

wsj3-14stjoseph
[Source: WSJ]

Last week I can across Sanette Tanaka’s WSJ column “Spreadsheet” titled “Bless Our Happy Home Sale” that talked about the tradition regarding St. Joseph. I waited to blog about it until today since March 19th is actually St. Joseph’s Day (BTW: who is getting any work done this week with 3/17 St Patrick’s, 3/18 March Madness brackets and now this?).

I love the phrase within the WSJ graphic: “Faith in Action.”

I previously wrote about this here in September 2005 and in October 2007.

Traditionally, Joseph, the husband of Mary, is hailed as the patron saint of home and family. Some believe that burying a statue of St. Joseph in the yard helps sell a house.

Here’s how it the process works when selling your home:

  1. Bury the St. Joseph statue upside-down in your yard, facing toward the house listed for sale.

  2. Sell the house.

  3. The Seller digs up the statue and puts it in the new home in a special place.

The last 4 years of statue sales show a pattern consistent with NAR’s existing home sale pattern with the housing market rebound beginning in 2011.

Who says housing trend analysis is devoid of emotion. Got it?

Tags: , ,


More Statue Sales Than Housing

October 30, 2007 | 10:51 pm | |

Its been nearly two years since I wrote about the St. Joseph statue, which was appropriate in late 2005, as the housing boom shifted gears. There has been more coverage of St. Joseph as of late, a sign of a weakening market perhaps (who says housing isn’t emotional).

In today’s WSJ, there was a fun (or sad, depending on your take) article When It Takes a Miracle To Sell Your House.

Well, St. Joseph is back (actually upside down). In Catholicism, St. Joseph, a carpenter, is honored as the husband of Mary and foster father of Jesus. Representing a humble family man, he is the patron saint of home, family and house-hunting. Here’s a full blown history.

The Catholic saint has long been believed to help with home-related matters. And according to lore now spreading on the Internet and among desperate home-sellers, burying St. Joseph in the yard of a home for sale promises a prompt bid. After Ms. Luna and her husband held five open houses, even baking cookies for one of them, she ordered a St. Joseph “real estate kit” online and buried the three-inch white statue in her yard.

Suggested use of the statue:

  • bury it three feet from the rear of the house (facing away)
  • bury it next to the front door facing away from the home.
  • display in the house.
  • bury in a potted plant in an apartment.

The sales pace of the statues is now double at catholicstore.com.

Who needs housing stats, lets start tracking sales of these statues. Its a booming business with a lot of places to purchase them (if you’re wondering):

OurFather.com
CatholicCompany.com
GoodFortuneOnline.net
BuryStjoseph.com
TotallyCatholic.com
StJosephStatue.com

Tags: , , ,


Giving St. Joseph A Commission Split

December 12, 2005 | 12:00 am |

How would you like to be buried upside down in someone’s backyard?

In Anna Bahney’s article The Tricks of the Trade in Coping With Slower Sales [NYT] real estate brokers are now being more creative in marketing property as buyers and sellers adapt to the slower pace of sales. At the end of the day, properties are selling, just not at the brisk pace seen earlier in the year.

My grandmother had used a St. Joseph statue to sell her house, not sure where she got it but apparently there is a whole cottage industry behind the concept. [Catholic Company] A number of years ago she convinced many of her friends to use it with great success I was told.

Here are some instructions for proper use [Bankrate].

When I went to sell my home, she gave me a statue but I could not bring myself to use it. …of course my home sold slower than expected. 😉


Tags: , , , ,