For Sale: "Divine Intervention"

Thanks to a reader who sent in this story from KCRA:

Some home sellers frustrated by a lack of buyers are turning to a higher power for help. Matthew Hempy is among those who said they need some divine intervention. His home in Ceres has been on the market for about four months -- much longer than he expected. "I guess it's just the market. That's what everybody's telling me," Hempy said.

So, even after all the landscaping's he's done, Hempy is taking his real estate agent's advice and pulling out the shovel one last time. "He says, 'Let's bury this thing and get some luck into this place because we really need it at this point,'" Hempy said. What they're burying is an 8-inch plastic statue of Saint Joseph, hoping the patron saint of household needs will help sell the house...

Hempy said he just figures a $10 investment in faith can't hurt when you're trying to unload a $340,000 home. "I'm all for any kind of luck we can buy right now," Hempy said...

In the Central Valley and across the country, realtors and homeowners say the longer these for sale signs stay up, the more they turn to St. Joseph. Phil Cates' company sells thousands of statues a year out of its Modesto office...Cates said the tradition began 500 years ago in Europe. Today in the U.S., the slower the home sales, the better the statue business.

"Our sales have tripled...actually have risen by triple digits over the last three years," Cates said. "California is frankly kind of starting to get to the top of our list."

Triple digit sales increase? Sounds like a bubble. Perhaps the bursting housing bubble will save the Modesto economy after all.