Carrie Bradshaw had a wonderful apartment in "Sex and the City." But we can't help but wonder ... just how did a single woman on a writer's salary afford a one-bedroom, one-bathroom on the Upper East Side of Manhattan?
Well, we may not be getting that answer today, but we now have a prediction of just how much her home, along with the fictional homes of several other memorable TV and film locations, would cost on today's red-hot real estate market. For Bradshaw's abode, it's an estimated $700,000.
And you know what, that doesn't sound too crazy!
La Jolla Realtors, a California-based real estate firm, has just released a list of several fictional film and TV homes and apartments, offering suggestions of how much they speculate they might cost in today's market.
"While many of the homes in our research are fictional, this data gives an indication of how much they would cost in real life in the same area," said a La Jolla spokesperson in an email. "If you’re looking to live like Monica (on) 'Friends,' or you are even looking to buy a cottage near London like 'The Holiday,' now you have an indication of how much money you may need to purchase these homes."
Along with Carrie's original "SATC" apartment (let's not even consider the cost of the one she bought with Big after they moved in together), La Jolla suggests prices for these shows and films:
"The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air"
$9 million
Five beds, five baths in the ritzy Los Angeles neighborhood of Bel Air? That's going to cost you. In 2020, Realtor.com suggested it was worth about $7.5M, and that year there was a promotional rate to stay there overnight (for just $30!) set up through Airbnb.
"Full House" / "Home Alone"
$3.5 million (each)
A six-bedroom family home in Winnetka, Illinois, like the one in the 1990 film "Home Alone," is pretty valuable these days, and on par with the Tanner family home in "Full House" in Lower Pacific Heights, San Francisco, California.
In reality, though, there's some cachet to owning the actual "Full House": One of the sitcom's producers purchased the home in 2016 for $4 million, and in 2019 it was on the market for just under $6 million.
Not quite so much for the "Home Alone" house, which was listed in 2021 for $2.1 million.
"The Holiday"
$2.45 million
The charming cottage in the 2006 film was based in Holmbury St. Mary, Surrey, U.K. The actual two-bedroom home, called Honeysuckle Cottage, was on the market in 2018 for around $803,000 in U.S. dollars, and is now available for rent via Airbnb. (Many of the homes on the list, or their re-creations, have had limited or ongoing deals with the short-stay rental company.)
"Friends" (Monica's apartment)
$2 million
Monica's Greenwich Village apartment would be much more valuable than Carrie's, according to La Jolla, going for more than double the value. In 2018, interior design startup Modsy gave it a modern day look, which we'd imagine would boost the value considerably!
"Harry Potter" (The Dursley home)
$615,000
Harry's aunt and uncle (and cousin) treated him abominably, but they would be sitting pretty on this Surrey, England, three-bedroom, two-bath house. The home on the fictional "Privet Drive," prominently seen in 2001's "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," went on the market in 2016 for just over $619,000.
"Hocus Pocus" (Max and Dani's house)
$520,000
Max and Dani made an error by opening a magical book in 1993's "Hocus Pocus," but their house is what's keeping us spellbound. The three-bedroom, two-bathroom house in Salem, Massachusetts, was built in 1870 and has an estimated price that matches with La Jolla's research, according to Good Housekeeping.
'The Notebook'
$480,000
You can get five bedrooms and five bathrooms in a stately home for a steal, according to La Jolla's estimates, if you're good with living a little off the beaten path. The mansion that Noah built for Allie in the 2004 hit is actually located in Wadmalaw Island, South Carolina.
'Twilight' (Charlie's house)
$305,000
In the movie, Bella's dad moved to Forks, Washington, into a modest two-bedroom, one-bathroom house. The real-life owners listed it for $350,000 in 2019, according to House Beautiful, but then posted it on Airbnb as a rental.