Could these TV characters afford their Los Angeles homes today?
For people who actually live in the Los Angeles area, it’s getting harder and harder to be able to afford a home. Not only is it the nation’s most unaffordable housing market according to one study, but Los Angles County prices recently hit an all-time high and there are no signs that they are slowing down.
It makes you wonder -- if real Los Angelinos can’t afford to live here, what chance would Hollywood characters have?
Some of the most popular and iconic TV shows have been based in Southern California, 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 that place?
So we here at Neighborhoods.com decided to investigate whether or not America’s favorite make-believe Southern Californians could afford to live there with today’s prices.
In order to know, 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, which would factor into these decisions, so you’ll just have to cut us some slack.
'ALF'
Residence Type: A 1926-built Tudor cottage with, presumably, at least four bedrooms.
Location: San Fernando Valley
Approximate Cost: $485,000
Profession: Willie Tanner worked as a social worker while Kate Tanner worked in real estate.
Salary: $46,367 (Willie) + $48,883 (Kate) = $95,250
Could they afford this house today?
No, unless they put down a monster down payment or Gordon Shumway put down the cats and got a job.
'Arrested Development'
Residence Type: A somewhat-completed McMansion with three bedrooms and attic space.
Location: Rancho Santa Margarita, Orange County
Approximate Cost: $1,000,000
Profession: Current owner Tobias Fünke is a professional actor, kinda.
Salary: $33,893, but given what we know about Tobias, even that seems high.
Could they afford this house today?
Not only could he not afford it, there are myriad reasons that no one should live there.
'Beverly Hills, 90210'
Residence Type: A two-story Mission-style house with three or four bedrooms.
Location: Beverly Hills
Approximate Cost: $2,320,000
Profession: Senior executive at investment firm
Salary: Hard to say but let’s go with $300,000
Could they afford this house today?
Even with that salary...no. But when the Walshes moved to Hong Kong, Jim was made partner in the firm. And at that point, he probably could afford it.
'Crazy Ex-Girlfriend'
Residence Type: A one-story, Spanish-style house that was the site of several murders but has been renovated (poorly).
Location: West Covina
Approximate Cost: $455,000
Profession: Rebecca is a lawyer at a small firm and Heather is a waitress/bartender at Home Base restaurant.
Salary: $94,271 (Rebecca) + $29,152 (Heather) = $123,423
Could they afford this house today?
Yes they can afford their home in West Covinaaaa, Califoooooornia!
'Entourage'
Residence Type: A 1926 Spanish-style mansion with seven bedrooms and eight bathrooms (one of three homes Vince lived in during the show)
Location: Encino Hills
Approximate Cost: $6,000,000 (actually sold for $4.2M in 2011)
Profession: Hollywood actor
Salary: Impossible to say but let’s just go with $20,000,000
Could they afford this house today?
The original Aquaman could absolutely own this house.
'Curb Your Enthusiasm'
Residence Type: A seven-bedroom, two-story house.
Location: Brentwood
Approximate Cost: $10,840,521 (It sold for $7,500,000 in 2007)
Profession: Co-creator and co-writer of Seinfeld, amongst other things.
Salary: Both the real and fake version of Larry David made $400 million on the most recent Seinfeld syndication cycle.
Could they afford this house today?
Larry David recently sold his actual house for $12 million, so, yeah.
'The Big Bang Theory'
Residence Type: A two-bedroom apartment (but let’s pretend it’s a condo)
Location: Pasadena
Approximate Cost: $458,000
Profession: Leonard is an experimental physicist at CalTech, Penny is a Pharmaceutical Sales Rep
Salary: $105,290 (Leonard) + $73,935 (Penny) = $179,225
Could they afford this house today?
Yes, they could afford to live here.
'The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air'
Residence Type: A 1937-built five-bedroom mansion with a columned rotunda and widow’s walk.
Location: Bel Air
Approximate Cost: $2,713,826
Profession: Uncle Phil is an LA Superior Court judge, Aunt Viv is a retired doctor
Salary: $176,000 (Phil), $178,856 (Viv*)
Could they afford this house today?
If we assume that Uncle Phil and Aunt Viv have built up a serious nest egg thanks to their high-paying jobs, then yes. But if we’re just going off of what Uncle Phil is making as a judge, the answer would actually be no.
'The O.C.'
Residence Type: A six-bedroom European-style villa overlooking the Pacific Ocean
Location: Newport Beach
Approximate Cost: $6,595,000, which we know because it’s currently up for sale in Malibu.
Profession: Sandy is a public defender while Kirsten is co-founder of matchmaking agency NewMatch
Salary: $100,295 (Sandy) + $52,000 (Kirsten) = $152,295
Could they afford this house today?
In their current professions, not in a million years could they afford the house. They had much more lucrative careers when the show began, however.
'Two and a Half Men'
Residence Type: A three-bedroom luxury beach house (that doesn’t look all that nice inside, to be honest).
Location: Malibu
Approximate Cost: $5,950,000
Profession: Walden Schmidt (Ashton Kutcher) is an internet billionaire
Salary: See, billionaire
Could they afford this house today?
Again, he’s a billionaire. Yes.