You’re not alone if you think you’ve sensed a ghost in your home.

It’s been a popular theme in horror films for decades: the haunted house.

Perhaps the new owners took a chance, thinking that poltergeists weren’t so bad. Or maybe the house has suddenly changed due to paranormal activity.

All of this may simply be a figment of the imagination of the house’s occupants who are physically alive in the house, but some evidence suggests that it is not that uncommon to believe that you have witnessed some kind of ghost in the house.

The University of Maryland Parapsychology Foundation said stories of poltergeists caused polarity to increase around the 1950s. The term “poltergeist” comes from a German term describing a “noisy ghost,” the university said in an analysis published on its website.

According to one survey, nearly 60% of people said they would buy a house even if they thought it was somewhat haunted.

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Angie Hicks of Angi, formerly known as Angie’s List, said 58% of respondents to a survey conducted by the organization said saving money would be enough for them to consider staying in a haunted house.

The organization surveyed 1,000 homeowners and found that a whopping 77% of those surveyed said they had heard an eerie and possibly unexplained noise in their home. These noises included movement in the attic, creaking floorboards and banging pipes.

Of those who responded to the survey, 65% said they had experienced unexplained phenomena in their home.

In 2023, the website Real Estate Witch reported that it found that the number of Americans who believed they were living in a real haunted house had increased from the year before.

Hicks suggests that if there are parts of your home that you’re not very familiar with because they seem intimidating—like an unfinished basement—add additional lighting and spend more time there to try to better understand what the noise is.