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- <text id=90TT2651>
- <title>
- Oct. 08, 1990: Business Notes:Housing
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1990
- Oct. 08, 1990 Do We Care About Our Kids?
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- BUSINESS, Page 66
- Business Notes
- HOUSING
- My Realtor, The Saint
- </hdr>
- <body>
- <p> With the real estate market slumping, some homeowners think
- it takes a miracle to sell a house these days. Not just any
- broker can perform one, so many sellers are turning to an
- expert: St. Joseph. Religious-goods merchants in several cities
- have been surprised at the brisk sales of St. Joseph statues,
- which homeowners bury in their yards in the belief the saint
- will drum up some business. The hopeful sellers inter the
- statues headfirst, with the feet toward heaven.
- </p>
- <p> Believers have sought the saint's help in household matters
- for centuries. St. Joseph, a carpenter, was handy around the
- house, after all. The Catholic Church has no objection to such
- appeals for intercession, but brokers, complained Father James
- Coen, head of the Catholic Information Center, to the New York
- Daily News, "are turning this into a first-class sales gimmick."
- Successful sellers are advised to exhume the statue and enshrine
- it in their new home. Co-op owners who have no yards may have
- to pray to someone else: St. Jude, patron of lost causes.
- </p>
-
- </body>
- </article>
- </text>
-
-