An article appeared last week in Washingtonian.com which you can read here which delved into the changing nature of neighborhoods in Washington, DC.  The article pointed out that funeral homes, especially African-American owned funeral homes, are disappearing from the neighborhood landscape rather rapidly.

The cause seems to be rising property values where a condo or apartment building eventually has so much more economic value than a neighborhood funeral home.  According to some in the African-American community, the loss is felt far beyond the business that has left.  Some point out that these funeral homes have been places where generations of families have gathered at some of the most difficult times in their lives.

Others point out that many had confidence in these funeral homes.  Now that they don’t have those funeral homes the families have to go through the experience of a death of a family member with doubt.

Funeral Director Daily take:  This article is similar to an article we wrote back in October about funeral homes in San Francisco.  The same issue with property values has caused San Francisco funeral homes to go from 42 funeral homes in the city  to only 13 funeral homes over the past several years.

As we mentioned in the San Francisco article — change is happening to some degree wherever you are.  While one funeral home closes and reaps a lot of dollars for the sale of its property, it brings opportunity to others to fill the void that was left.  It’s part of good business to be constantly looking to how you can improve your business.  A suburban funeral home should look at a way in which it could offer its services in these voided inner city markets.

I think that there is no doubt that inner city funeral homes across the country will almost universally see rising land values coupled with higher business costs, and probably, lower revenues per case.  If you are one of these funeral homes it is never too early to plan on how you will handle the changing environment.

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