For some reason nobody wants to buy the house Chris Watts owned

Chris Watts has been the subject of many people’s morbid curiosity ever since 2018 when he committed his heinous crimes. Watts, who was married to Shanann Watts, murdered their two young daughters as well as his pregnant wife.

At first, Watts feigned innocence and pleaded on television for help finding his missing wife & kids. However, it soon became clear to authorities Chris Watts not only knew what happened, but that he was what happened.

Now, the home the Watts family lived in sits empty, on a quiet (well, it’s a little less quiet these days) residential street in Colorado. Watts will be in prison for the rest of his life as he serves five life sentences and his wife & children are no longer in need of it for obvious reasons.

It just won’t sell

It isn’t surprising nobody wants to inhabit the former Watts home. The appalling crime which took place there would loom as a haunting shadow for anyone who tried to move in. Knowing you were treading the same ground where a horror took place would make it difficult to make your new house a home. Putting Christmas decorations up, laughing in the kitchen with friends, or having your own family there would just feel wrong.

The house was foreclosed on after Chris Watts defaulted on his mortgage once he was arrested. The house was for sale an entire year, but in a not-very-surprising turn of events nobody put in any offers.

Once a full year had gone by the house was taken off the market – it still technically belongs to Watts, though he’ll never need it. Someone (likely another creditor) will likely attempt to sell the house again in the future, but right now it’s harder to sell this home than it would be to sell a sweater in the desert.

About the house

The home is currently worth approximately $645,000 according to People Magazine. The home has appreciated in value substantially since the Watts family bought it in 2013 for $399,954. Though, the estimated value clearly doesn’t match what it’s actually worth in people’s eyes.

The house is 4,177 square feet and has a total of eight bedrooms. The exterior has rich brown siding and some handsome bricking around what appears to be a three-car garage. It doesn’t matter how aesthetically pleasing the home is though – nobody wants to live in it, and we can’t blame them.

If anyone is going to purchase this house it will likely have to be someone who doesn’t know what happened and doesn’t think to ask if anyone has died in the home before they purchase it. Realtor.com says this means the buyer is probably going to have to be from out-of-state since everyone in the area knows exactly what happened in the unassuming suburban dwelling.

Morbid curiosity

The residential street the former Watts home resides on is now used to having cars creep through the street for a glimpse at the notorious home. Neighbors have, on more than one occasion, spotted unfamiliar vehicles slowly roll down the street as the people inside look at the Watts home.

Some have even stopped, hopped out of the vehicle, and taken photos. One neighbor who is horrified by the nosy onlookers said, “You can always tell who they are, because they’ll cruise the neighborhood slowly and then get out of their cars and take pictures of the house. Some of them even take selfies. It’s gross.”

Luckily, the number of people looking for some tragedy porn dwindled as time passed, but with documentaries & books continuing to come out about the still fairly recent familicide, interest spikes back up now and again. With the latest documentary being a Netflix sensation, it’s possible the poor neighbors will have to deal with an increased number of lookie-loos all over again.