Haunted Housing: How Toxic Scare Stories are Spooking the Public Out of House and Home

Should home buyers be wary of radon? Asbestos? Lead paint? Power lines? “The evidence induces skepticism,” writes Cassandra Chrones Moore in Haunted Housing. “Credulity and fear have created an atmosphere of hysteria inimical to reasoned argument, diverting resources, burdening the taxpayer, frightening the home buyer, and putting at risk the long-cherished goal of many Americans to own their own home.” Moore outlines the government-created mis-perceptions of risk affecting buyers and sellers of homes, tenants and landlords, brokers and agents.

Cassandra Chrones Moore is an adjunct scholar with the Competitive Enterprise Institute and the Cato Institute.