The real estate market for the environmentally ill (MCS or EHS)

 

 

There is a tiny specialty market in the United States for houses that are built or modified for people with environmental illnesses – multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS), electromagnetic hypersensitivity (EHS) or mold sensitivity.

 

Keywords:    healthy house, real estate market, housing, environmental illness, multiple chemical sensitivity, MCS, electromagnetic hypersensitivity, EMR syndrome

 

 

Not all the same

There is no definition of a house that is “safe” for someone with environmental illness (EI). People can have a more or less severe case of the illness, and the worst triggers vary with the person. A house that is a true haven for one person can be unlivable for another.

 

Some houses advertised on the EI real estate market are simple conversions. The owner didn’t do many actual changes to it, but gave it a good cleaning and airing out before moving in, and then lived there without using toxic products (pesticides, fragrances, etc).

 

That doesn't sound like much, but it can still save a buyer a lot of detoxing effort. Still, a lot of the people with severe EI can't live in it.

 

On the other end of the spectrum are houses that were built from the ground up, using non-toxic materials by contractors who knew what they were doing. If taken care of by the owner, such a house should work for most people with severe EI. But there are not many of these available, most owners of such a gem stay in it for life.

 

In between these two ends of the spectrum are the bulk of healthy houses that are advertised for sale. They are much better than the typical American toxic abode, but may need some extra work for someone with severe EI to live in.

 

This middle category often includes newly built houses that the original owner can't live in. This happens if the builder cuts too many corners, such as when choosing the wall paint. The owner is now hoping to find a less-severe buyer so the cost can be recouped, perhaps for a second attempt at building a healthy house. These houses tend to be advertised for years, as they aren't very good, while still pricey.

 

Testing the house

It is customary on the healthy house market that a prospective buyer tries out the house for several days.

 

The buyer often has to travel to see the house, and will be affected by exposures along the way, so it is hard to test right away. Sellers also typically air out the house vigorously before the buyer arrives. That makes it harder to know what the place is really like.

 

There may also be a need to try to sleep in different rooms, and perhaps move some furniture or other things out of the house. A simple overnight stay can weed out a lot of houses, but may not be enough to make a decision to buy.

 

A tiny market

There are not many houses available. Since the states of Texas, New Mexico and Arizona have attracted so many people with the illness, this is where the most houses are available.

 

It is common for buyers to move long distance for such a house.

 

For a generation, the go-to place for finding listings was the monthly magazine Our Toxic Times. Today, the monthly EHB e-mail newsletter has these listings. The EI social media also sometimes list houses for sale.

 

There have been several attempts at creating websites specific for EI houses, but they were all short-lived.

 

There is a specialty market for “green” homes, with websites catering to them. These sites sometimes list EI housing too. “Green” and “EI safe” are not the same. There is some overlap, but “green” houses can use all sorts of toxic or moldy materials that are recycled, or just too “biological,” and have many kinds of electronics that create noxious EMF.

 

Custom built homes are rare

Very few new healthy houses are being built. It takes a lot of effort to build one, as the owner needs to be present to make decisions and watch the contractors do not make shortcuts. The new owner may have to live in a tent or a van during construction, which takes a lot longer than for “cookie cutter” housing.

 

Besides not having the financing, most of the sick people don’t have the skills and stamina to build a house.

 

There has only been one case where an investor built houses of this kind to sell to the EIs. That was a three-house development in Snowflake, Arizona. It was very successful, except the developer didn't make much of a profit, as she felt sorry for the cash-strapped would-be buyers.

 

Slower to sell

It commonly takes a year for a healthy house to sell on this specialty market. That is much slower than on the regular market.

 

There are plenty of people who need a healthy house, but the disease has taken a toll on people’s finances. The medical bills can drain their savings, and the reduced income makes it worse.

 

Banks are also reluctant to finance unusual houses that cost more than regular houses. Many EIs have to borrow from family, or use other non-bank lending. We have an article about this, see below.

 

It is not for lack of interest. The few places that rent out EI apartments at an affordable rate have long waiting lists.

 

Then there is the problem of having to move to where the house is. A lot of people are very reluctant to do that, as they’ll lose their local support, family, and other resources they depend on.

 

It can also seem scary to move to a rural area, which is where most of these houses are. A rural area does not have the nearby conveniences that seem so important. One prospective person stated she was used to go to a Whole Foods store every day (she did move anyway).

 

Some people are simply too afraid to move. This writer once talked to someone living in a toxic shoebox-sized apartment on Manhattan in New York. When directly asked why she could not move, she said she loved Broadway and the art museums. Then asked when she last went to any of those places, she said “years ago, but I hope to go again.”

 

There are a lot of armchair “experts” on social media who talk down moving to the EI communities in the Southwest, even though they’ve never been there themselves. This may also discourage some people.

 

The premium price

The healthy houses cost more to build. A tile floor cost a lot more than one with carpet, for instance. Thus they command a premium price.

 

In 2024, a real estate agent who had served the Snowflake EI community for over twenty years did a comparison of local sales for the previous five years. He found the EI homes sold for about thirty percent more than regular homes of similar size. These were all homes custom built for the EI.

 

Converted houses have also sold at a premium. Even if the house has no major modifications, but just been lived in without the use of toxic chemicals, it can command a premium price.

 

These premium prices can motivate sellers to wait for an EI-buyer, rather than placing the house on the regular market.

 

Healthy homes being lost

Far too many excellent houses are lost.

 

Many sellers can’t wait a year to sell the house. They need the cash for their new home, to pay for long-term care, or other needs. The heirs to someone who died are seldomly interested in being helpful to others with a disease they never understood; they just want to cash in.

 

Once a healthy house is sold to a regular person, it soon becomes contaminated from their use of toxic chemicals. The Snowflake community had to see one of their best and safest houses sold to a man who worked as an exterminator, since the house didn’t sell to an EI within six months.

 

The same community has seen heirs to custom built houses list them with regular realtors. The community then had to do their own advertising to the EI world. In one such case, the realtor installed electric “plug-in” fragrance emitters in the house, to make it more “enticing” to regular buyers.

 

There have also been people who were determined that their house should go to someone who really needed it, and were willing to wait.

 

What sellers usually agree to, is to advertise the house to the EI community for three or four months before placing it on the regular market. Unfortunately, that is often not long enough.

 

There have also been cases where the EI owner didn’t take proper care of the house so it became moldy. These houses had to be sold to regular people.

 

One owner of a custom built house in rural Arizona recovered after more than a decade there. She then started using essential oils. After some more years, she wanted to move to the city and tried to sell the house, but it was now too contaminated to sell to other EI people. It had lost its premium value.

 

In rare cases, an EI house sold to a regular person can later be “bought back” by an EI, if it is not too contaminated. This also once happened in the Snowflake community.

 

Loss of property value

The premium value of a healthy house can be lost if a developer builds something nasty in the neighborhood. It may not be something regular people object to, but it can make the house unsellable on the EI market – at least at the premium value.

 

The loss of property value can be used as an argument to convince the local authorities not to grant a building permit. This has been done successfully once, though it took several people to protest at the hearing.

 

An EI real estate foundation

To avoid losing the really good EI homes, there is a need for a foundation that can buy and hold houses until a buyer comes along.

 

The foundation should evaluate each house and only select the good ones, and only step in when the house is in danger of being sold to regular people.

 

 

More information

This website has several articles about finding, buying, financing and modifying healthy houses: www.eiwellspring.org/saferhousing.html.

 

2025