As Housing Sales Chill, St. Joseph Sales Are Hot

c. 2006 Religion News Service CLEVELAND _ Some call it superstition. Others call it faith. Just about everyone agrees: For less than 10 bucks, it’s worth a try. St. Joseph is the most affordable real estate agent for hire. And as more homes languish in an increasingly cool housing market, he also is one of […]

c. 2006 Religion News Service

CLEVELAND _ Some call it superstition. Others call it faith. Just about everyone agrees: For less than 10 bucks, it’s worth a try.

St. Joseph is the most affordable real estate agent for hire. And as more homes languish in an increasingly cool housing market, he also is one of the most popular.


It is believed that Joseph, when buried in statue form upside down, brings good luck to homeowners desperate to sell. The tradition dates back hundreds of years; more recently, it has inspired Web sites devoted solely to selling St. Joseph statues and burial kits.

They are top-sellers at Christian-themed gift shops. Real estate agents buy them in bulk.

It’s often “an act of desperation,” said Chris Bell, spokesman for the Cleveland Area Board of Realtors. “It seems agencies buy them when their listings aren’t moving as fast as expected.”

The local Realtors group sells a small St. Joseph statue at its online store, http://www.cabor.com, for $7.95, plus tax and shipping costs.

“We’ve been selling quite a few this year,” Bell said. “More than usual.”

Religious book and gift shops, where statues sell for as little as $2 and kits that include prayer cards and burial instructions often sell for less than $10, also are seeing an uptick.

“They sell good all the time,” said Frank Novak of Gannon’s Religious Gifts in Fairview Park. “But we’re selling more now. The housing market is difficult out there.”

That’s good news for Phil Cates, a Modesto, Calif., mortgage banker who owns StJosephStatue.com, a Web site that bills itself as your “underground real estate agent.”

Cates has been selling the statues since 1990, and said that in each of the last three years, he has recorded at least a year-over-year sales increase of more than 100 percent.


“When I got into this, I got into it to make money,” Cates said. “I didn’t believe it at first. I stopped thinking that way about two years ago. I am a true believer now.”

Merchants have plenty of stories about customers who sold houses soon after burying St. Joseph. Coincidence or divine intervention?

“You can interpret it as a superstition or as a circumstance of faith, which I prefer,” said Betty Vento, owner of Mosack’s Religious Gifts in Mentor, who has been selling the statues to frustrated home-sellers for more than 30 years. “St. Joseph is the patron saint of home builders. He’s the natural one to pray to when selling a home.”

Lynne Poweski, manager of Galilee Religious Bookstore in North Olmsted, recommends prayer, but the statues “seem to do very well. We hear good stories.”

Beyond the digging, burying, praying and selling comes some degree of superstition. There are different rules for burying the statues. Some recommend front yard, others the back. Some say facing the street, others facing the home. And many feel it’s bad luck to leave him there.

“After you sell the home, dig it up,” said Carol Vascek of Leona’s Religious Gifts & Art in Warrensville Heights. “And put it in a prominent place inside your new home.”


(Henry J. Gomez writes for The Plain Dealer in Cleveland.)

KRE/PH END GOMEZ

Editors: To obtain photos of St. Joseph statues, go to the RNS Web site at https://religionnews.com. On the lower right, click on “photos,” then search by subject or slug.

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