When Satan or poltergiests (ghosts) possess a house the house is said to be "haunted." This belief apparently is related to the notion that Satan can possess human beings. But while it is quite common for a Catholic priest to bless a house, exorcisms are not done on houses, despite what was depicted in The Amityville Horror, a fictional movie based on a true fraud.
Why Satan or ghosts would confine themselves to quarters is beyond me. With all their alleged powers, they could be anywhere or everywhere at any time. If they really wanted to terrorize the neighborhood, they'd take turns haunting different houses. In the case of Amityville, the real devils were George and Kathy Lutz who concocted a preposterous story made into a book and a movie, apparently to help them out of a mortgage they couldn't afford and a marriage on the rocks. [Schick & Vaughn, p. 269-270]
Besides the cases which are frauds, there are those cases where otherwise normal people hear strange noises, have visions of dead people or of objects moving with no visible means of locomotion. There are even "ghostbuster" types who go to such houses for programs such as "Sightings." They walk around with some electronic device that picks up electromagnetic fields, and if the needle jumps around they claim they have evidence of poltergeist activity. Why electromagnetism should be identified with ghosts or devils, I have no idea. As for the rest, well, hearing strange noises in the night and letting the imagination run wild are quite natural human traits and not very indicative of diabolical or paranormal activity. Likewise for having visions and hallucinations. These are quite natural, even if unusual and infrequent, in people with normal as well as with very active imaginations. [Sagan]
Haunted houses are great fun at Holloween, though certain devout Christians find them, along with witches and goblins, to be diabolical. No one really thinks these Holloween houses are haunted. People go to them because we like to be scared out of our wits. Why? I have no idea. But whatever the reason is, I suspect it is behind the popularity of ghost stories and tales of haunted houses.
See related entries on satan, witches and wicca .
further reading
Sagan, Carl. The Demon-Haunted World - Science as a Candle in the Dark, ch. 6 "Hallucinations," (New York: Random House, 1995).
Schick, Theodore, and Lewis Vaughn. How to Think About Weird Things (Mountain View, California: Mayfield Publishing Company, 1995).