Tiny Indiana town with population of 3 is for sale

Why spend millions on a Manhattan apartment when you can own an entire town for less?

In Indiana, the town of Story — with a population of three people — is on the market for $3.8 million.

For that price, you get 17.4 acres with a historic general store, fenced horse pastures, an old grain mill, several barns, rental cabins and outbuildings that include two 19th-century outhouses, according to reports.

And as of 2018, only three people — plus four dogs and a resident ghost — lived in the town, located about an hour south of Indianapolis. The only employer is a bed-and-breakfast called the Story Inn.

The B&B’s owner, 62-year-old lawyer Rick Hofstetter, also owns the town.

He plans to keep the hotel — which, as the state’s oldest country inn, attracts visitors — but wants to relinquish the responsibility of managing the rest of the properties.

“The town’s fortunes should be decoupled from our hospitality operations,” he told the Herald-Times. “Macy’s doesn’t own the mall.”

The lucky buyer will get what Hofstetter calls “an entire historic town nestled in the hills of southern Indiana” that dates back to 1851, per the listing.

“This is not a reconstruction of an authentic little town,” Hofstetter told WANE-TV in Fort Wayne. “This is an authentic little town.”

In the early 20th century, in the town’s prime, a whopping 175 residents called it home. Then the Great Depression wiped out many agricultural and industrial jobs and Story all but disappeared.

There was a small revival in 1978 when a couple purchased the general store, but it wasn’t until Hofstetter came along in 1999 that there was any significant interest in the area.

Since purchasing it 20 years ago at a sheriff’s tax sale, he has dedicated his spare time to renovating, preserving and repurposing Story’s 19th-century buildings.

An old dairy barn, for example, is used as a wedding venue. Story is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

“It’s not every day someone gets to buy a town,” Hofstetter told the NBC affiliate station WTHR. “I’ve had that experience. Now I want to live long enough to sell a town.”

Ref: Property Report