How Much Would Your Favorite TV Show Homes Cost in 2021?

Watching our favorite TV shows growing up, we could imagine renting a “regular” apartment like the Friends crew. We didn’t really believe we’d become mansion-dwelling royalty in Bel-Air like the Fresh Prince himself. But it seems like even with a full house, the Tanner family might need some miracle money to afford their San Francisco home in 2021.

To reconcile our realty dreams with reality, we compiled Zillow’s real cost data about some of the most well-known homes on TV to give our dream home fantasies a little reality check.¹

Spoiler alert for anyone who’s looked for a new home in 2021: sitcom home prices aren’t realistic for most people. Even when the shows mention prices, we still have to question if the characters could cope with their home costs without outside income.

And as a reminder for those of us who get fixated on the furnishings within the fantasy: a TV show home’s interior is often a sound stage or a set location that doesn’t match the real exterior address used for the home.

Total cost of TV show homes in 2021

All pricing from Zillow as of August 8, 2021.

The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air

The Fresh Prince mansion tops the total costs of today at $11+ million, which we could expect—royal homes aren’t cheap. But Uncle Phil’s judge job and Aunt Viv’s spare stints in teaching couldn’t swing that sensational sell price without a little extra something, right? Maybe Will could help pay for some of his Bel-Air stay after a few hit singles.

To go back to Bel-Air for six full seasons of freshness, hail a cab and pull up Max.

Full House

Around 1987, perhaps Danny’s consistent news reporting and show host work (along with Joey and Jesse’s odd assortment of jingle jobs and random TV and rockstar roles) could’ve covered the mortgage for the Tanner house. But if you compare the original $441,929 price tag to today’s cost, you’re looking at $5,602,500, which seems like too much for even the tenacious Tanner clan.

The San Fran Tanner clan is streaming two seasons on fuboTV, but you can buy everything on Apple TV+.

Modern Family

Claire and Phil’s Modern Family household in LA costs $2,892,000 in 2021. Claire stayed at home as a mother for most of the show, meaning Phil’s realty sales would’ve had to be beyond amazing for the family to afford their cozy digs.

Follow up with Modern Family on fuboTV for a season, or pick up all 11 seasons on Apple TV+.

Gossip Girl

The Van der Woodsen penthouse in Gossip Girl is priced at a cool $2.25 million, but that’s for a 14-room penthouse that’s supposedly in the Upper East Side of New York. Most of the near-royal family lived in Serena’s decked-out art-and-decor lair at some point in the show, and their old heritage money seemed to be endless.

All six scandalous seasons of the secretive socialites can be seen on Max.

Rental costs of TV show homes in 2021

All pricing from Zillow as of August 8, 2021.

How I Met Your Mother

Ted Moseby would share a ridiculous $11,713 per month in rent for his How I Met Your Mother apartment. While his roommate Marshall had a potentially lucrative law practice, Moseby’s architecture work wouldn’t warrant paying that much for the big city vibes—right?

If you want to tune into Moseby’s love story all over again, you can find the show on Amazon Prime Video or Hulu.

Will & Grace

Will and Grace’s NYC apartment rental runs $4,324 per month, which may seem feasible for a high-priced lawyer and an interior designer who know the right people—but that’s about $52,000 per year, which could be most folks’ annual salary or more.

You can spend your evenings streaming all eight seasons of Will & Grace on Hulu.

New Girl

These days, can you be a creative writing teacher looking to be the new girl in LA and pay $3,449 a month in rent? Jess’s apartment was $2,000 in 2011, which still seems pretty steep, but a decade’s difference makes a massive dent in the rent budget.

All seven seasons of New Girl are streaming on Netflix.

Sex and the City

We were streaming some Max and felt a little slighted.

Sure, Sex and the City’s Carrie Bradshaw may have written for newspapers and Vogue magazine in the ’90s—but can a columnist in 2021 cover the cost of a $2,500 per month apartment and a high-fashion party lifestyle in New York City?

Seinfeld

Jerry Seinfeld’s celebrity status (even in the show) helped us understand how a comedy career could afford a solid space in NYC. But can you imagine paying the “rent-controlled” $300 per month compared to the current $1,736 per month cost? (We’re surprised it’s even that “cheap.”)

Seinfeld’s been syndicated on various platforms in the past, but right now, most seasons are streaming through DIRECTV.

Friends

Monica worked as a waitress and chef while Rachel’s café career turned into becoming a personal shopper and buyer for Bloomingdale’s—so covering $200 per month for their apartment should’ve been no sweat in 1994, right? But in 2021, these two friends would need $3,399 per month to keep the Central Perk crew coming together in New York.

Max has Friends from the very beginning to the recent reunion ending.

Sitcom homes are still a dream for most of us

While many of our favorite TV show homes already seemed too expensive, even some of the simpler sitcom setups are a little too spicy price-wise in 2021 for the medium- to low-income jobs the characters held (or us, for that matter).

Oh well, maybe the market will start to look better after you land a few acting gigs of your own? If nothing else, you can keep streaming and dreaming of your next fantasy pad.

Methodology

We compiled a list of our 10 favorite TV show homes and their addresses. Using Zillow data, we found the real cost of each home. Pricing data was completed on August 8, 2021.

Sources

Zillow pricing data, compiled on August 8, 2021.

1. Danni Holland, Velvetropes.com, “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air House,” April 19, 2021.
2. Andrea Francese, Cheatsheet.com, “‘Full House’: Could Danny Tanner Really Afford Prime San Francisco Real Estate?” October 30, 2020.
3. Andrea Francese, Cheatsheet.com, “‘Modern Family’: Could the Dunphys Really Afford Their Los Angeles Home?” April 15, 2020.
4. Hayley Soen, TheTab.com, “Ranked: These Are the Most Expensive Homes from TV Shows, Ever,” September 2020.
5. Andrea Francese, Cheatsheet.com, “‘How I Met Your Mother’: Could Ted Afford His New York City Apartment?,” November 17, 2019.
6. Mackenzie Schmidt, People.com, “The Updated Price Tag for Will & Grace’s New York Apartment Is Shocking,” January 19, 2017.
7. Finn McCrae, Cheatsheet.com, “‘New Girl’: How Much the Apartment Would Cost in Real Life,” August 21, 2019.
8. Alexis Reliford, “This Is How Much Monica’s Apartment in ‘Friends’ Would Really Cost,” March 15, 2017.
9. Amy Plitt, Ameena Walker, curbed.com, “20 Iconic ‘Sex and the City’ Filming Locations in NYC,” June 12, 2018.
10. Andrea Francese, Cheatsheet.com, “‘Seinfeld’: Could Jerry Seinfeld Afford His Manhattan Apartment?” May 3, 2020.

This content was produced by CableTV.com and is in no way sponsored, endorsed, administered by, or associated with Zillow, NBC Productions, NBC Studios, Warner Bros., the American Broadcasting Company, Disney-ABC Domestic Television, Universal Studios, Darren Star Productions, or HBO Entertainment.