For many iconic fictional on-screen characters, memorable moments take place at home — be it Kevin McCallister fighting off the Wet Bandits in “Home Alone,” or Chandler Bing proposing to Monica Geller on “Friends.” The homes are important backdrops in these stories, but could the characters afford them today? Probably not, according to a new study.
Researchers at Clever, a real estate consultancy, analyzed data on current salaries, home prices, rents, property taxes and insurance rates to determine if notable characters in 20 TV shows and movies could realistically afford their homes if they lived in them now. The study used real-life home listings to establish values for on-screen real estate, as well as real-life salaries to set the characters’ incomes.
The upshot: Only two of the productions featured homes their characters could afford to buy, both in the Midwest: One was “Roseanne,” where the Conners lived in fictional Lanford, Ill., for which Evansville, Ind., was used as a stand-in. An estimated list price of $232,700 and a household income of $112,060 would enable the family to own that house today. The other was “That ’70s Show,” set in fictional Point Place, Wis., for which Sheboygan, Wis., was used as a stand-in. There, the Forman family could swing the estimated list price of $274,900 with their household income of $225,750.
Characters in the films “Twilight” and “10 Things I Hate About You” — both set in the Pacific Northwest — lived in homes they could afford to rent, but not own. In “The Sopranos,” the North Caldwell, N.J., home used to depict the family’s house was determined not affordable for someone in “waste management” — though it was noted that Tony Soprano may have had some hidden income. And in “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” Uncle Phil and Aunt Viv might be able to rent (not buy) their mansion, but Philip Banks, educated at Princeton University and Harvard Law School, would have to be one of the highest-paid lawyers in Los Angeles.
Carrie Bradshaw, the columnist lead character of “Sex and the City,” very likely couldn’t afford her West Village apartment, which now has an estimated monthly rent of $5,700 and a list price of $2.77 million. The same goes for Monica Geller, a chef in “Friends,” whose West Village apartment is estimated to rent for $7,500 and list for $2.65 million. In both cases, the show’s scripts cited rent stabilization as an explanation.
And finally, despite how full the house was, Danny, Jesse, Joey and Becky’s joint income could not afford the San Francisco home pictured in “Full House,” which has an estimated list price of $6.5 million and estimated rent of $18,056 a month.
The post Could Your Favorite TV and Movie Characters Afford Their Homes Today? appeared first on New York Times.
