Being able to afford a house in Chicago might seem like the kind of thing people can only afford to do on television. Home prices here are already pretty high and just keep on rising. Even if you want to buy a condo instead you’re looking at prices that keep going up as well, and all of this is before what might happen to the housing market if Amazon decides to open their second headquarters here.

Some of the most popular and iconic TV shows have been based in Chicago, and in many of them we’ve had a chance to see how and where our favorite characters live. What we often never stopped to ask ourselves was … could they actually afford their homes? 

So we here at Neighborhoods.com decided to investigate whether or not America’s favorite make-believe Chicagoans could afford to live there with today’s prices. 

In order to find out, we took a look at a few specific factors. First, we figured out the approximate cost of the residence used in the TV show. Then, using Glassdoor’s salary guide, we tried to figure out how much those characters would make today given their stated professions. From there we use Smart Asset’s home affordability tool to presume housing budgets and determine if the homes these made-up people live in are actually affordable. Of course, we can’t take into account things like down payments, savings, and investments, all of which would factor into these decisions, so you’ll just have to cut us some slack. 

One note, it can be hard to pin down a character to a specific profession sometimes since they might change it multiple times during the course of a TV show. So, we either chose the last profession they had before the show ended or the profession that character was most recognized for having. So don’t @ us.

"Family Matters"

Photo by Ben Schumin / CC BY-SA

Residence Type: Two-story, four-bedroom frame house

Location: Lincoln Park

Approximate Cost: Sold for $798,000 in 2016

Professions: Carl Winslow (police officer), Harriette Baines-Winslow (security officer)

Salary: Carl ($72,510) + Harriette ($28,239) = $100,749

Could they afford this house today?:

Even with that salary, the Winslows would have been better off looking elsewhere today. That’s especially true considering the house was recently slated for the wrecking ball, doomed to be replaced by condos. Urkel is behind this, we’re sure ... 

"Roseanne"

Photo Courtesy of 106.1 Evansville

Residence Type: Three-bedroom bungalow-style house

Location: The fictional town of Lanford (said to be close to Aurora)

Approximate Cost: $140,000

Professions: Discounting the whole “winning the lottery dream” and choosing from the many jobs they had throughout the course of the show; Roseanne Connor (plastics factory worker), Dan Connor (construction contractor).

Salary: Roseanne ($25,858) + Dan ($38,502) = $64,360

Could they afford this house today?:

Yes! Roseanne and Dan have enough craziness in their lives, at least they don’t have to worry about this.

"The Good Wife"

Photo Courtesy of CBS / Pinterest

Residence Type: Luxury apartment

Location: Gold Coast

Approximate Cost: $2 million

Professions: Alicia (all different kinds of lawyers)

Salary: Alicia ($179,953)

Could they afford this house today?:

On salary alone, no. But factor in savings and whatever shady dealings Alicia’s ex-husband was up to, and we suppose it could work. Or she could just sue someone to make it work.

"Married … With Children"

Photo Courtesy of Margaret Surratt / Pinterest

Residence Type: Three-bedroom house with lawn and two-car garage

Location: An unspecified neighborhood in Chicago (in reality the home is in Deerfield)

Approximate Cost: $470,900

Professions: Al (shoe salesman)

Salary: Al ($24,746)

Could they afford this house today?:

On Al’s salary, they couldn’t have afforded the house back then and they certainly couldn’t afford it now. Maybe the D’Arcy’s are kicking in a percentage considering how much they’re over there. 

"Perfect Strangers"

Photo Courtesy of Perfectstrangers.tv

Residence Type: Two-bedroom apartment

Location: Lincoln Park

Approximate Cost: $500,000

Professions: Larry (Chicago Chronicle reporter), Balki (Chicago Chronicle comic writer)

Salary: Larry ($45,225) + Balki ($25,000) = $60,225

Could they afford this house today?:

Maybe they could back in the 80s but certainly not now. They’d likely find more success being strangers in Edgewater or Ravenswood.

"Shameless"

Photo by Dustin Batt / CC BY-SA

Residence Type: Single-family home originally built in 1895

Location: Little Village

Approximate Cost: The actual house is valued at around $80,000

Professions: Frank (good question), Fiona (property flipper, eventually)

Salary: Frank ($0ish) + Fiona (in theory, $100,000)

Could they afford this house today?:

So long as Fiona is the one making the payments, yes. If it was left up to Frank, no way.

"Mike & Molly"

Photo courtesy of Rachel Rogers / Pinterest

Residence Type: Three-story Craftsman (though the interiors are the same set from Roseanne)

Location: According to the address given for the house, that would be Oak Lawn

Approximate Cost: $280,000

Professions: Mike (police officer), Molly (elementary school teacher),

Salary: Mike ($71,878) + Molly ($51,776) = $123,654

Could they afford this house today?:

Though technically the house belonged to Molly’s mother, if we assume they were the ones paying for it, they could definitely afford the place. That then begs the question … why are they living with her family?

 

(Find out if your favorite TV characters can afford their homes in Los Angeles and the Bay Area as well.)