If you thought it was expensive living in a major city, just try dying there.
Bloomberg reports that burial (and even urn-storing) services in cities like New York and Tokyo are skyrocketing as they run out of space.
"At the end of the day, it's like any other piece of real estate," Amy Cunningham, a New York funeral director, told Bloomberg. "Prices have conspired to put burials out of the range of most people's budgets."
For those who can't afford a $320,000 mausoleum in Brooklyn, there are always bargain alternatives. An upstate plot can go for $500, Bloomberg reported.
An even cheaper option may be cremation, and a growing number of Americans are embracing the urn: Fewer than 4 percent chose that route in 1960, compared with 43 percent in 2012, according to Bloomberg.
But even as prices are skyrocketing for their clients, cemeteries are also confronting their diminishing supply. Rich Moylan, president of Brooklyn's Green-Wood Cemetery, told Bloomberg he would like to be able to reinvest family-provided funds for upkeep into the stock market.
—By CNBC staff.