Does a street name discourage a buyer from purchasing a house?
Is "mocha" worth more than "brown?"
There are plenty of dicussions centered around whether someone would live on a particular street because of its name. But it often, if ever, becomes a deal-breaker.
The topic has been researched, albeit not much. A study out of Canada found homes along a street with a prestigious name did sell better than the nearby streets without any pizzaz.
Developers have even changed the names of streets for buyers who felt it was too difficult to pronounce or spell.
Steve Crossland, a real estate worker from Texas, looked into neighborhood with street names like Gunfight and Shooter. What he found was the houses did not cost any less, but it took a fraction longer to sell them.
"I've never had somebody say, 'I don't want to see this house, because I don't like the street name,'" Crossland said.
While the effect of the street name may not catch you, you may change your mind once inside the house. There are reasons companies invest so much in selecting names for their products.
Jeanine Skorinko, professor at Worchester Polytechnic Institute, Mass. did a study on how people perceive colors based on names.
People think there must be something a little bit nicer about "mocha" than "brown," and are willing to pay more for it. This is the same angle cosmetic industries plays.
Whatever the color is called, it can be one of those cues that buyers don't even know they're picking up on when they look at a house.
