Since it is the holiday season, an eternal question arises. No, not if Santa Claus is real (we all know that, Virginia). That's how rich the McAllister family, who owned a sprawling mansion in a tree-lined neighborhood in the legendary Home Alone movie, were too busy getting to Paris to remember poor eight-year-old Kevin.
The New York Times spoke with economists and experts at the Federal Reserve to get an overview of the McAllisters. It turns out – wait for it – they were probably in the top 1%.
The house used in the film's exterior shots is on Lincoln Avenue in the Chicago suburb of Winnetka, one of the wealthiest communities in the country. That's according to Realtor.com.
Three economists at the Federal Reserve in Chicago have crunched some numbers to support this, including the region's household incomes for 1990 and 2022, property values, mortgage rates at the time, taxes and insurance.
“Assuming that the McCallisters spent no more than 30 percent of their income on housing, the economists also concluded that the house was suitable for a household with an income of $305,000 in 1990 (about $665,000). dollars in 2022) would have been affordable,” the NY Times reported.
“In mid-2022, a similar home would cost about $2.4 million, based on the Zillow estimate for the Home Alone home. A home of this value would be affordable for a household with an income of $730,000, which would be in the top 1 percent of households in the Chicago area,” the economists said.
So yes, the McAllisters were filthy rich.
With that out of the way, let's move on to another important question: How did the cast of Friends afford those spacious New York City apartments?