Most funeral homes, regardless of where they are located, are lamenting the tide that is turning – or has already turned – as the business of death care turns from earth burial dispositions to cremation dispositions.  Even the best run death care businesses – whether funeral home or cemetery – are having to make tough decisions on how to bring in enough revenue to pay the bills and earn a good profit.

From our point of view, it is even going to get tougher as the millennials who will help their parents with funeral arrangements and pre-arrangements will be looking, through their mobile devices, for the best prices possible for the services that they seek.  That is bound to put downward pressure on prices in competitive, especially metropolitan, markets.

However, you can be optimistic or you can be pessimistic.  It certainly could be worse — I discovered an article in SF Weekly – about the death care industry in San Francisco.  While the city, the arguable metropolitan hub city of Silicon Valley,  is growing – from 714,000 in 1970 to about 864,000 people today — according to public health records the number of deaths are down almost 56% in that time period.  Most probably from a migration of seniors selling their, now very valuable, residences to new residents.

Couple that statistic with the cost of earth burial and cremations in the city and you will see why things are on a downward trend for San Francisco mortuaries.  Grave lots are among the most expensive in the country with Greenlawn Memorial Park listing them starting at $ 7,458 and even at the catholic Holy Cross Cemetery they list for $6,900.  By comparison, College Chapel Mortuary lists their direct cremation charge as $747 according to the article.  That is even less than the non-profit Medical Examiner’s Office which cremates at a cost of $1,000 for families that request it.

College Chapel funeral director Steve Welsh stated, “There is no shortage of burial sites. . . . but it’s so expensive, it’s like housing — costs for both the living and dead are rising.”

The number of funeral homes in San Francisco has dropped from 42 to 13 over the last 57 years.  Real estate is needed to operate a full service funeral home and it is so expensive in San Francisco that the owners are better off, in many cases, just selling the real estate.  Just this year, two more mortuaries have sold to housing developers.

Funeral Director Daily take:  This is certainly an interesting article which I believe is probably on the far end of the spectrum as to the cost of earth burial vs. direct cremation in a metropolitan market.  The stark contrast in pricing shows the economic reality for both the consumer and the funeral home operator.  However, it is like anything else.  . somebody’s problem will become an opportunity for somebody else.  It will be interesting to see, in the next decade, how metropolitan based funeral home operators rise to this challenge around the country.

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