Here's What Happened To The Staircase Home

Publish date: 2024-05-02

Murder tends to be — well, murder — on the value of a house. According to Realtor, homes that were the site of notorious killings can lose between 10 and 25% of their value, and sellers face an uphill battle getting anyone to buy the house even at lower rates. For many, the discount isn't worth being kept up at night by the knowledge of what happened within the home's walls — or ghoulish visits from curious tourists and true crime aficionados.

So it has been for Michael Peterson's former residence, which has changed hands twice since his 2003 conviction. Per The News & Observer, the North Carolina home was initially listed at $1.175 million after he was sentenced. The price was reduced later that year to $975,000, but when it finally sold in 2004, it went for $640,000, almost half the original asking price. The buyer was Jason Balius, the owner of a local bakery.

Balius didn't hold onto the Peterson house for long. In 2007, after renovations, he put it up for sale and found a buyer within a year: Biond Fury, a New York-based psychic, who purchased the house for $1.3 million. The house stayed with Fury for over a decade, during which time he briefly tried raising money through GoFundMe for further renovations. In 2020, the house was back on the market. Realtor reported that a limited liability company acquired the house for $1.6 million that year.

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7qL7Up56eZpOkunB9k2xvaW9oZMSprdNmn5qooJq7prCMrKuaoaKYrrSxjKGmpp1f