Brooklyn Has A Second-Hand Grave Market, And it Is Going Strong
Doesn’t a second-hand grave just sound like the creepiest possible commodity? We know, it does. But with the price of being buried in New York is soaring. Real estate, even a small patch of it, isn’t cheap. Price at Green-Wood Cemetery start out at $12,000 for a three-person grave and go up to $320,000 for full mausoleum. So in the interest of thrift, some New Yorkers are buying previously owned plots.
That doesn’t mean that they’re about to excavate a relative and give it to you, though. The second-hand plots, a report from CityLab explains, are from people who moved away from New York City, but had originally planned to be buried here. They’re considerably cheaper, if maybe illegal. Sites like Craigslist, Grave Solutions, and Final Arrangement offer graves from $1,500 to $11,000 and mausoleums startings at $8,000. Many of the ads indicate that the graves’ original purchasers have decamped for Florida, which I guess at least means you’re not dealing with zombies. On Craigslist, that’s never a sure thing.