When Susan Sandler and her husband, Howard Eisenberg, decided to downsize from their 4,000-square-foot single family home with its large yard, garden, and burdensome maintenance, they were not expecting to move into a church—until they saw it.
“We just loved it,” Sandler tells Realtor.com®. In 2018, the couple happened to pass by the century-old Methodist church in Narberth, PA, near Philadelphia, while it was still being converted into a six-unit condo building.
“It’s not like we were dying to live in a church—that sounds bad—but when we saw it, we were taken by it,” she says.
It’s easy to see why. For character and charm, it’s hard to beat a church, and the conversion left plenty of original detailing intact, from the exterior stone and steeple, to the soaring multicolored stained-glass windows, thick original dark wood beams, and towering 14-foot ceilings.
“We walked inside and went, ‘Woooahhh,'” she says. “We were blown away by it.”
The couple paid $878,000 for their three-bedroom, two-level church-condo, which also has two bonus rooms, including what was once the choir changing area, which they use for storage.
“We aren’t doing it justice,” she says of the “super adorable” room. “What can I tell you?”
Divine homes
So far this year, there have been 627 churches listed for sale through a multiple listing service, the traditional path for residential real estate sales, according to Realtor.com data.
And while many abandoned churches are lauded for their affordability—often due to their poor condition—the median asking price for a church listed on an MLS this year was $401,500.
That’s not much lower than July’s national median listing price of $428,950 for the active inventory of all homes.
States with the highest number amount of churches for sale are Virginia (78), New York (57), Tennessee (36) and Texas (35). A church in the Empire State can run a hefty median asking price of $699,900.
Of course, a church that is already converted and turnkey will cost far more than one that is falling apart and needs lots of prayers and elbow grease.
As well, many churches that go up for sale are listed in commercial property databases, which are separate from the MLS system. Commercial property site LoopNet, for example, currently has more than 750 church listings, although its unclear whether some of those properties are also listed through an MLS.
Why there are so many churches for sale
Church attendance has been on a fairly steep decline for decades. On any given weekend, about 3 in 10 U.S. adults attend religious services, down from 42% two decades ago, says Gallup News.
Almost all religious faiths have seen a decline in attendance. The exceptions are the Jewish and Muslim faiths, which show slight increases.
Since about 2000, the number of Americans who belong to a church, synagogue, or mosque has plummeted from around 70% to around 47% in 2021.
This has led to a plethora of churches across the country coming on the market. Bad for religion, but good for those jonesing for a home with unique history and character.
However, the work involved in converting a church into a residence can be substantial. Churches, built for large gatherings rather than families, typically have inconvenient layouts, as well as the usual array of issues common to older buildings, including outdated electrical and plumbing, and lead paint.
“You are basically rebuilding and reengineering an entire structure into a home which means adding walls, doorways, electrical, plumbing, and bathrooms,” says Coldwell Banker agent Cara Ameer.
Due to the amount of complex and expensive work involved, converting and flipping a church for profit is uncommon.
“If you do this, do it because you love it, not because you expect a big return on your dollar from a resale perspective,” she says.
Turnkey church condos
Still, some deep-pocketed developers are snatching up churches—as well as other underutilized historic buildings such as religion-based schools, convents, firehouses, warehouses and factories—and converting them into luxe condo buildings with tons of history and charm.
According to Michael Kelley-Bradford of Brown Harris Stevens, who repped a 1911-built converted church convent Manhattan’s Hamilton Heights, dwellings with this kind of dramatic architectural detail can command a steep premium.
He notes that the average price per square foot for Hamilton Heights condos in the past five years has been consistent in the $735-$790 per foot range.
However, he says that the conversion at West 142nd Street, the units were moving at a premium—including for his clients, who paid 47% above the broader local market for their church condo unit.
“I think much of that premium comes down to scale and architectural character,” he says. “You walk in and immediately have these dramatic, two-story ceilings alongside original historic details and craftsmanship that simply aren’t replicated in most new construction.”
“You have the history, the architecture, and the sheer grandeur of the space, so there’s much more to draw from than you might have with a more traditional or cookie-cutter apartment. It gives you an opportunity to really lean into the character of the property and what makes it irreplaceable.”
Adds Peter Cossio of Brown Harris Stevens, who repped a converted 1891 church in Hoboken, NJ: “You need to make sure the buyer understands that the home is more than an investment—it’s a statement piece.”
The downsides of church living
Beyond the grand architecture, jaw-dropping stained glass windows, and divinely soaring ceilings, living in a church conversion can offer unique challenges.
Sandler says that the century-old stone exterior and beautiful but decidedly old windows meant that the HOA decided waterproofing the outside of the building was in order.
She doesn’t remember the cost, but according to All Bright Painting, exterior waterproofing can cost $3 and $10 per square foot. With a large church, that can certainly add up.
And speaking of those glorious stained glass windows—Sandler’s can only be opened a few inches from the bottom. She says this doesn’t bother her, but her husband would prefer ones that opened fully, so he can “feel like he’s on the outside.”
Thanks to inner windows put in by the developer, at least the ancient windows aren’t drafty.
Then there is changing lightbulbs on 14-foot ceilings. “We finally figured out how to use this attachment thing,” says Sandler. “But it was a bit crazy. You’d have to get out this giant ladder.”
Ditto the smoke detectors on the vaulted ceilings. “If a battery went out, you were in trouble,” she says.
But they finally found batteries with a ten-year lifespan. “We didn’t want to get woken up in the middle of the night with a battery going off on a 14-foot ceiling.”
“Practically, you’ve got to figure things out,” she says.
And while the church has shared outdoor space, Sandler misses her old private porch. “I can’t get much reading outside because I’ll always run into a neighbor,” she says with a laugh.
The high ceilings also means extremely steep staircases, something she wonders how she and her husband will navigate as they continue to age.
“When my mom came over, she went upstairs once and said she didn’t need to see it again,” she says. They are considering putting in an elevator.
Then there is the question of resale. Someone who wants to live in a church is a particular kind of person—and that person may be harder to find.
“There can be challenges to selling a church that’s too religiously specific or chopped up in ways that don’t make sense for a condo buyer’s expectations of space and light,” Jessica Peters of Douglas Elliman, who repped a church conversion in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, tells Realtor.com.
However, if done right, church condos usually don’t linger long on market. Peters says that of the 12 units in the Fort Greene church-condo, ten sold in the first five months.
Sandler says none of the downsides of church living are insurmountable, and that the benefits outweigh the disadvantages. For instance, the church’s walls are so thick that she has never once heard the noisy grandchild that her neighbors have mentioned.
“They say he cries all night, but we’ve never once heard him,” she says. “Which is good, because that could be a nightmare.”
And despite the soaring ceilings, she says that their heating bills aren’t any higher than what they had in their single family home.
Most of all, Sandler appreciates the sustainability and the tremendous craftsmanship of the building. According to the plaque on the exterior, the original church took five years to complete.
“One of the joys in living in a building like this is the idea of recycling,” she says. “Somebody put a huge effort into making this beautiful space when it was a church. The idea that somebody would knock it down and build some new ugly building is really sad to me.”
And then there is just the enjoyment of living inside of a statement piece. “People come over they walk in the door and they’re like ‘wow,'” she says.
