Being Dead Broke is a Grave Situation

by Sandy Sand

It’s no secret that the economy is bad for most of us, while others have fallen into a black hole of debt.

Where yesterday they could pay their bills; today they can’t, even after selling off everything of value that they possess.

That is…until they remember that long forgotten, dusty deed to a burial plot.
From ashes to ashes; from dust to dust, and for some the dust on the deed is a safety net to buy them a little time to recover from their economic ills.

So it is in Southern California where the price of land has always sold at an inflated premium.

More and more people in California, as well as across the country, are selling off their burial plots make ends meet or to keep their heads above drowning in indebtedness.

Like all over-inflated acreage, burial plots in Southern California before the economic downturn were selling for between $3,000 and $21,000, with a mean price of $12,000.

The average plot is 6-feet by 3-feet or 18-square-feet, and there are 43,560 square feet to an acre, which if laid side by side and not allowing for walk-around room, means every acre could accommodate 2,420 plots.

If the plots were to sell for the average price of $12,000, each acre would be worth $2,904,000.

In any man’s pocketbook that is a lot of money.

In a bit of irony, for one Los Angeles woman, who found herself suddenly evicted with the distinct possibility of being forced to live on the street, her grave situation was her lifeline, but at a heavy cost in the deflated value of all real estate.

According to Baron Chu, owner of Plot brokers, plots are selling for 25-cents on the dollar.

The burial plot she owned was originally purchased for $6,800, which she sold for a paltry $500.

“ But,” Chu said, “it allowed her to move into a hotel for a month where she can live and look for work. It kept her out of Skid Row."

There was no follow-up in the Daily News story, so there is no way of knowing if a month and $500 was enough time and money to allow her to dig her way out of her financial mess.

For her sake, and the thousands of Americans like her, who managed to be productive citizens up to now…let us hope so.

Source: http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_11364444