This Is How Much It Would Cost You to Live in a Famous TV Home

TV stars always live in the most beautiful homes. They rarely are seen going to work, but somehow are able to afford a lavish and seemingly perfect lifestyle. If you are like the rest of America, you may wonder how this is possible? Why can’t you afford a huge NYC apartment with only one roommate on your $45,000 salary?

A recent analysis done by Empire Today, looked at the salary the average person would need to earn to afford iconic TV homes. Let's just say most of these homes are not cheap. They looked at five movie homes, and five television homes. They determined an estimate cost of each house or apartment, looked at the average price of comparable home listings in the area, then determined the required salary, assuming the payment wouldn’t exceed 28 percent of one’s monthly income. They also looked at down payments in the amount of 20 percent, 10 percent, or five percent, and based the mortgage payment calculation on a 30-year, four percent loan. Yes, it seems like a lot of math went into this process.

The first home (well, apartment) looked at was Monica and Rachel’s NYC pad. The famous apartment from Friends seems spacious, and most likely way overpriced for what you get. Also, how were they affording to live there?! This apartment is a two bedroom, one bathroom that would run you about $1,995,000, according to Empire Today. With a 20 percent down payment, your monthly mortgage payment would be a whopping $7,620. That would mean you need to earn an annual income of $326,571. It seems pretty obvious that Monica and Rachel weren’t making that kind of money.

Next up was the Tanner’s home in the pricey city of San Francisco. We all know that San Francisco is one of the priciest cities in the US. So it came as no surprise that this four bedroom, four bath house would cost about $1,950,000. With a 20 percent down payment, your monthly mortgage payment would be $7,448. This would mean you need to be raking in over $315,000 a year.

The analysis also looked at Blanche's house from Golden Girls, which is a four bedroom, four bath home in beautiful Miami. Again, not a cheap area to buy a home. TV characters like to live in expensive cities. The estimated home price for Blanche's home is about $1,499.000. With a $299,800 downpayment and a $1,199,200 loan, your monthly mortgage payment would be about $5,725. This means you would need to earn an annual income of $245,357.

The other (more affordable) TV homes analyzed were Lorelai's home in Stars Hollow, CT from Gilmore Girls and Joyce’s home from Stranger Things. Lorelai’s two bedroom, two bath home would cost you about $225,000. Now that sounds more reasonable! With a downpayment of $45,000, your monthly mortgage would only be about $859. The annual income needed to live like Lorelai and Rory would be about $36,814.

Joyce's house from Stranger Things in Hawkins, IN. seems to be the cheapest in the round up. The estimated home price is $139,900. With $27,980 down, your monthly mortgage payment would be about $534. That sounds more doable than any of the other homes in the roundup.

So maybe the average person can't afford to live the way Monica and Rachel do in NYC, going to Central Perk everyday, but take a look on the bright side... at least more of us could afford to live in the Stranger Things world, or we could hang out with Lorelai and Rory in Stars Hollow.