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When Christiana Perez and Nick Porter began their home hunting in New York in 2021, they were open-minded about their outlook. Perez has a historic preservation background, and both expect to be able to work from home.
“But every turn we just got a price,” explained Perez, the director of social media for media companies that belong to cheap old homes, including popular newsletters and HGTV shows.
Finally, they had an inspiration. “Well, geographically speaking, if I’m ‘handcuffing’, then if I don’t live anywhere, I want it to be my dream home,” Perez said. “And I have always dreamed of living in something non-traditional, whether it was a school building, a general store, a fire station or a church.
Four years later, the couple dates back to the 1790s and are proud owners of “Wales Hall,” a former church that had been vacant for decades. Perez told USA Today that it was a “learning curve” and was expensive, but he said the building’s beauty and its historical significance are valuable.
As church attendance decreases and housing markets become closer, Perez and Porter’s paths may seem increasingly promising. There are many vacant worship houses across the country, but there are many things to consider before making the leap (of faith).
The “trend point” of vacant churches
In 1999, 70% of Americans responding to the Gallup poll said they belonged to a church, synagogue or mosque. However, by 2020, that number had fallen to just 47%. One estimate suggests that 100,000 places of worship could be closed in the coming years.
Stephen Ferrandi is the founder and broker of PraiseBuildings, a Maryland-based religious building broker.
“Twenty years ago, when we first started, I said there was a turning point and you said you would see a lot of churches on the market, but I didn’t know what that would turn,” Ferandi said in an interview. “I knew it was Covid.”
Most praise brokers in the worship house are sold by one congregation to another, primarily to new immigrant groups. Ferandi explains what may be a long way before the congregation reaches that point:
“It’s not just sustainable,” he said. “To be honest, they probably would have been closed 30 years ago when they first started having problems. The problem everyone encountered was that no one wanted to make the decision to close the church.”
Despite the opportunity for these vacant churches to represent, there are many potential pitfalls, as anyone familiar with Fixer-Uppers would expect.
“Every work has to come together,” said Bill Skivik, founder of Michigan-based religious real estate.
Will churches and other religious buildings become residences?
Most old churches for sale have one very large space and a very high ceiling. In many cases, the places of worship have few bathrooms, and perhaps none of them are full.
Among them is charm. Glen Jackson, who owns two churches in the Metropolitan Pittsburgh area, compares the blank slates of historic church decades ago to an industrial loft building.
And Elizabeth Finkelstein, co-founder of Circa Old House, said, “You’ll have the coolest home in town.”
Still, many of them may require dramatic overhauls to feel like home, and many require expensive updates of plumbing, heating, electrical work, and perhaps new roofs.
Funding for church renovations
Regardless of your particular circumstances, people who spoke to USA Today said that the need to buy a church that needs to be renovated to function as a home would likely require non-traditional funding.
Perez and Porter get traditional mortgages for the church purchase and have a construction loan for renovations so they can go. Churches are often purchased because they are far less than homes. Jackson is currently selling one of him for just $60,000. As such, other owners pay cash for the building as it can be difficult to remove small mortgages and can borrow funds for rehabilitation work.
In many cases, church buildings may have separate buildings on the premises, such as the minister’s house where construction work may be occupied while construction work is underway.
It is especially important to note that there is no equivalent property, so you may need work to get appraisals and homeowner insurance. Skubik offers another consideration. If the church is in an area with lower property value, we recommend that you consider how much work you have done in the renovation so that the completed property does not have a dramatically higher value that is completely violated in the neighborhood.
Finally, if you rely on financial aid from a community, nonprofit, or government, make sure that Glen Jackson from the lesson, whom local government officials believed had the same goals as him, learned the difficult methods.
Buying a house with spirit
In some suburbs and rural areas, churches may sit on land surrounded by cemeteries. Think about how you feel when people start visiting. But more importantly, make sure you have a construction project or infrastructure plan that must enter the building through the land.
On a more positive note, you may notice that your neighbors and others in your community can share stories about the history of your home. Maybe even an anchor for the community.
“You’ll become a local hero because you’re saving the town’s anchor,” Finkelstein said. “Such buildings are actually central to the community.”
Accepting the challenge of converting the church
Perhaps the best advice comes from Perez. Perez says anyone who buys “non-traditional buildings” for their homes should embrace that essence.
“I understand that it needs to happen to make it liveable,” she said. “But we have the least possible way of making marks, so we hope that forever it attracted us to begin with.
