It's a popular theme in scary movies over the decades: A haunted house.

Maybe the new owners took a risk thinking the poltergeists wouldn't be that bad. Or maybe a home suddenly changed because of a paranormal phenomena.

It could all be just a figment of the imagination for the residents of the home who are physically alive in the residence, but some data shows that it's not all that uncommon to believe you've experienced a ghost sighting of some sort in a home.

The University of Maryland's parapsychology foundation said stories about poltergeists saw a boost in polarity 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.

Nearly 60% of people said they would buy a house even if they believed it was haunted, to some extent, according to one survey.

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

The organization surveyed 1,000 homeowners and found that a whopping 77% of those asked said they've heard a spooky and possibly unexplained noise in their home. Those noises included movements in the attic, creaking floorboards and banging pipes.

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

In 2023, the site Real Estate Witch said it found that the number of Americans who believed they lived in a real haunted house had increased from the year before.

Hicks suggests if there are parts of your home you're not very familiar with because it's spooky to you — like an unfinished basement — add extra lights and spend more time there to try and get a better understanding of what the noises are.