Impact of murder scene on home values

​TEXAS – A home in Texas could lose as much as a few thousand dollars off the asking price if a murder was committed in or near the location of the house, a recent study has found.

Finder.com, a personal finance site, looked at how homicides affect property market value across the U.S. Houses lose an estimated $2.3 billion a year because of homicides, the study found. 

Texas is one of the top states where home values fell because of homicides. There were 13,000 homicides with a total loss of more than $52 million, based on 2014 data collected by the group.

Finder.com calculated the impact of murders on property prices with research from University of Technology Sydney, which found that home prices generally fall by about 4.4 percent for properties near a homicide location in the year following a murder.

The group said a murder gives buyers the impression that the area is less safe.