See Dead People! Only $915,500!

An update on a long ago post entitled, "5 Bed, 2 ½ Bath, 200+ Disembodied Souls."

Evidently, my knowledge of real estate prices sucks, because in that post I guessed that the houses that were being built on the aptly named Cemetery Road would list in the 400's -- which turned out to be way, way low.

Seems it costs almost a mil to commune with dead South Jerseyans on a regular basis. The advertised price for the house at 206 Cemetery Road is $915,000.

I just had to see just what was so enticing about these McMansions that merited the hefty price tag, especially considering their rooms with a tombview.

So, when my spousal unit and I noticed the opening of an open house, we planned a spy mission -- to see if the view from inside was really as bad as imagined.

Nearly full-page ad/article extolling the model at 200 Cemetery Road fronts the New Homes section of a Sunday Philadelphia Inquirer.

Balloons on the mailbox provided a nice welcoming touch.

The front door was unlocked, with not even an agent on site. Oh, maybe a specter or two was watching over us; if so, they did not make their presence known.

So, we could take photos without having to be sneaky about it -- cool!

And here, ladies and gentlemen, is the view from your living room -- worth every penny of the 900-grand price tag, isn't it?

Photo below was taken from an extremely large bedroom on the 2nd floor -- what appeared to be an in-law suite.

Wouldn't mom love to get up each morning and enjoy this cheery view? Make sure to put her rocker right next to the window...

Oh, you could see the graves from every window in the front of the house, but I figured you don't need photographic overkill to get the picture.





What? A cemetery isn't a "Community Amenity?"

Even disregarding the sightlines, I just cannot wrap my head around the prices these houses are going for (or maybe not going, since it appears none of the three McMansions facing the cemetery has sold -- and they've been on the market for at least six months.) The model actually has the worst (or best, if you don't dig the dead) view of the cemetery -- the sightline is better and the tombs are more abundant as you progress down the road towards the house at 206 Cemetery (the one listed for $915,000).

Sure, the model had the biggest breakfast room (OOPs, I mean "grand morning room" as described in article above) I've ever seen, adjoining a kitchen at least twice the size of the one currently going unused (I'm not a fan of that whole cooking thing) in my house. I was not impressed.

Because my housing priorities are different from the typical suburban wishlist -- my fantasy home would include his/hers studies (preferably soundproofed to block out the exact frequency of my children's whining) and an entire wing of just storage space.

So...as much as I love exploring model homes, they usually just end up making our current house look like the best buy ever.

And even though we don't have any dead folks across the street, we did find a rabbit carcass in our front yard this week (which all the kids at the bus stop really enjoyed, as evidenced by their joyful cries of "EW! EW!")

Ah, there's no place like home...