Friday 13th - Can the number 13 affect the value of your house?
Yesterday afternoon I got a call from BBC Radio Berkshire asking if I would come in to do an item on their breakfast show about Friday the 13th. Apparently Reading Council has decided to banish the number 13 from any new planning applications. There is evidence they tell me that the number 13 can be so off putting to the purchasing public that it can actually affect the value of the house. It is certainly the case that some builders won’t have a number 13 or a floor 13 in an apartment block and it is certainly true that Friday the 13th is not the most popular day to move house but I have seen no evidence whatsoever that the number 13 has put off a buyer or effected the value of a house. One of them urban myths me-thinks! I wonder how much money the council spent making this decision !!
Just under a fortnight into the year and so far the signs are promising. Despite the suffocating gloom that our media love to spread over us, Joe and Jane Public seem to be willing to consider the possibility of moving house this year. Registration of new applicants, appoints to value property and fresh properties coming to the market have all exceeded January 2011 and we still have more than a fortnight of this month to go. It is far too early to tell if these “green shoots” are an indication of something more sustained and I rather doubt that 2012 will see the start of the next boom in the housing market but a bit of stability rather than a lot of doubt wouldn’t go amiss!
