Recession Hits Death
Funeral directors are turning down their thermostats, doing their own laundry and not buying new hearses, according to a new National Funeral Directors Association survey.
The reason: Funeral home revenues are weakening as more consumers opt for cremations, cheaper caskets, shorter viewing periods and cheaper wakes. Also suffering are trusts and stock funds in which funeral homes invest money from clients who prepay for their funeral arrangements.
New hearses often are the first cutback. They cost about $80,000, according to the association. The trade-in market for them is small and they get poor fuel economy.
Sheets and towels used to move bodies are increasingly laundered in-house, according to the new informal survey.
Consumers are spending less on funerals, too, mainly by switching from caskets to cremations.
Cremations rose 46 percent nationwide from 1997 to 2007, according to association figures. The switch to cremation, which represents from 24 percent to 35 percent of all funerals, has undercut the market in metal caskets. Funeral homes sell them for an average of around $2,250, according to the directors association.
Total U.S. funeral costs averaged $7,323 in 2006, according to the association’s latest figures, not counting cemetery and monument costs.
Fancy ornamental hardware sales are off, too, funeral directors say. Sheet metal urns are outselling copper and bronze ones. Mahogany-stained coffins are supplanting solid mahogany ones.
Still, funeral home directors can anticipate rising demand. The current U.S. death rate of 8 per 1,000 per year is projected to rise to 9.3 by 2020 and 10.9 by 2040.
With the funeral homes tightening their belts please take a copy of our free funeral guide to make sure you know all the pitfalls and tricks to look out for.
