Since it came out in 1990, “Home Alone” has become a holiday classic, rewatched by millions every year. Anyone who’s seen it knows the McCallister family has a nice house in a nice neighborhood and a vacation budget large enough for everyone to travel to Paris for Christmas. But have you ever wondered just how rich the family is?
Luckily for inquiring minds, “The New York Times” did some research to find out. They even enlisted help from economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago to determine the fictional family’s wealth and they learned:
- The best clue to how much money the McCallisters have is their home.
- The real house used for exterior shots in the movie is located in the Chicago suburb of Winnetka, one of the most expensive neighborhoods in the world, according to Realtor.com.
- Not only are there enough bedrooms for Kevin and his four siblings to have their own, there’s also plenty of space for a house full of relatives.
- According to those Federal Reserve economists, the house was only affordable to the top 1% of Chicago household incomes back in 1990, and that’s still the case today.
- A Zillow estimate for the real home reveals the cost would be about $2.4-million, which would be affordable with a household income of $730-thousand, and that would be in the top 1% of Chicago-area households, according to the economists.
Source: The New York Times