Upside: A water view, beautifully manicured grounds and a slew of famous neighbors, for a fraction of what local condos cost. Downside: You’re dead.
No, you may not be able to live among the rich and famous, but you CAN afford to be dead among them. Exclusive and expensive cemeteries begin — but don’t end — in places like New York, California and Texas, where late stars of industry, politics and Hollywood reside. If you’ve got enough life insurance, and a hankering to get in, you can.
How much? For a plot on a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean, in beautiful Santa Barbara Cemetery in southern California, you’ll pay $83,000, while a spot just a short walk down from the water can be had for just over $20,000. Far more than the $1,000 average price of a burial plot in the U.S., to be sure, but a whole lot less than the millions that water-view property goes for elsewhere in town.
Just down the freeway, at Forest Lawn Memorial Park’s locations in Hollywood Hills and Glendale, a family mausoleum in a prime location costs up to $825,000. But a basic plot, complete with casket and various services, can be had for $8,000. Created in 1906 by Hubert Eaton, and now expanded to seven locations in the area, Forest Lawn is known for perfectly manicured grounds and a topography that tucks grave markers into hillsides in such a way as to make them virtually invisible to the naked eye from a distance. It was a first of its kind that still endures.
“Eaton wanted to create a view that celebrates life,” says Sherri Hauer, Forest Lawn’s merchandising manager. Famous Hollywood plots at Forest Lawn’s various locations include those of Ricky Nelson, Rod Steiger, Bette Davis and Lucille Ball.
Other top cemeteries: Houston’s Glenwood Cemetery, established in 1871, offers plots starting at $7,000 and Sparkman-Hillcrest Memorial Park in Dallas, where you can rest your bones for $5,635.
Don’t expect prices to come down. Though technically real estate, unrelenting demand helps cemeteries avoid the kind of market swings afflicting housing right now. About 2.4 million people in the U.S. die each year, with most buying property beforehand, according to Bob Ward, founder of Finalrestingplace.com, a Web site that provides a secondary market for cemetery plots. Also keeping prices high: Family purchases of burial plots and funeral services aren’t done rationally, given the stress levels involved.
“People worry that they did the right thing, not ‘Did we spend too much money?,’” says Ward, who thinks the lack of new cemetery building will keep prices rising for the foreseeable future.
Still, more families are skipping full burials in favor of cremations, a much less expensive formula for laying a loved one to rest. Cremations account for over 30% of all funeral services in the U.S., according to the Neptune Society, a Florida-based company that specializes in the service.
In Arizona, Hawaii and California, among other states, the cremation rate is over 50%. In addition to cost, lifestyle changes that have made Americans more mobile and spread out are also driving the trend. Local cemeteries don’t make as much sense for families that aren’t so dug in anymore, so to speak.
But if you want to die with the best of them, New York’s famous 1800s-era Woodlawn and Green-Wood cemeteries are tough to beat, and continue to command big premiums. Green-Wood, the Brooklyn-based cemetery known for its elegant tombs, charges as little as $1,500 for a basic plot. A private mausoleum, though, can go for up to $300,000.
Woodlawn, in the Bronx, gets a flat $200 per square foot for basic plots, or $4,800 for a double-depth gravesite for two. Premium space for a family mausoleum can run to $1.5 million. That’s just for the land — the mausoleum means a separate bill from an independent company. Permanent neighbors will include old New York business families like the Belmonts and Woolworths.
Both were modeled after Mt. Auburn Cemetery, built in 1831 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the first American cemetery in a park-like setting. It was based on a European model that came into vogue when urban and industrial growth rendered smaller graveyards obsolete.
“[It’s] the granddaddy of them all,” says Patricia Brooks, author of several books on famous cemeteries. With proximity to Boston Harbor, Harvard and MIT, it remains one of the most exclusive and most expensive. Still, $3,500 to spend eternity alongside Oliver Wendell Holmes and Henry Cabot Lodge? Not bad.
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© 2007 Forbes.com
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[Original illustration at this number was a duplicate of HolwickID #21625]