The Housing Scene

Some Houses Are Movie Stars

Lew Sichelman

“Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” the sequel to the 1988 Tim Burton horror comedy, raked in $110 million during its opening weekend in September. But how much would it cost to buy the Connecticut house where most of the movies’ action takes place? 

There’s no price tag to check because it’s not a real house – just a facade built in nearby Vermont, coupled with a series of interior sets. But a just-for-fun listing prices the fictional house around $461,000. The 2,000-square-foot house would feature three bedrooms, two baths, a large kitchen, a one-car garage – and a gateway to the afterlife in the attic, occupied by two friendly ghosts. 

The fictional listing sparked a bit of interest in other famous movie and TV locations, and what they might draw in today’s market. Here are a few Hollywood-worthy properties of note. 

Based on Google data, Harry Potter’s first home is among the most popular movie-location searches. To be clear, this isn’t the Dursleys’ house on Privet Drive, where Harry grew up. Rather, Google searches racked up for a house in the fictional town of Godric’s Hollow, where Harry lived as an infant with his parents before He Who Must Not Be Named swept in.  

In real life, Godric’s Hollow is Lavenham, England, and the Potter residence is De Vere House, which dates back to the 14th century. It was on the market several years ago for about 1 million pounds, but is now run as a bed-and-breakfast. Potter fans can find it on Airbnb. 

In “Full House” and in real life, the Tanner home is located at 1709 Broderick St. in San Francisco. It was home to nine people and a dog on the show, but the place has only four bedrooms and 3.5 baths. That’s a lot of doubling up! If you’ve got deep enough pockets, you can buy this piece of sitcom history, currently listed at $6.5 million. 

The home from “Mrs. Doubtfire” is also in San Francisco, at 2640 Steiner St. in the Pacific Heights neighborhood. The 3,300-square-foot, three-level Victorian was built in 1893 and has four bedrooms and four baths. It sold for $4.1 million in 2016 and would likely fetch more than $5 million today. 

Another cinematic icon is the “Home Alone” mansion at 671 Lincoln Ave. in the Chicago suburb of Winnetka, Illinois. The 1921 Georgian-style colonial where 8-year-old Kevin McAllister (played by Macaulay Culkin) was left to his own devices at Christmastime is currently on the market for $5.25 million. The house has five bedrooms and six baths.  

The house from “The Brady Bunch” is another expensive family hangout. Located at 11222 Dilling St. in North Hollywood, California, the place was used only for exterior shots. Nevertheless, the house sold in 2023 for $3.2 million, according to Zillow. Reportedly the second-most photographed house in the country (after the White House), the Bradys’ joint was built in 1959 and has been remodeled on HGTV.  

Of course, not all made-for-TV residences are houses. Some are apartments, such as the “Friends” unit in New York City. Exterior shots place the apartment at 90 Bedford St. in the West Village. Roommates Monica and Rachel (Courteney Cox and Jennifer Aniston) rented the two-bedroom, one-bath apartment for a whopping $200 per month – thanks to decades of rent control. (The unit had been Monica’s grandmother’s.) Today, monthly rent for a similarly sized unit would be more than $5,000. 

Carrie Bradshaw’s place in “Sex and the City” is in an unnamed building at 66 Perry St., also in the West Village. It is doubtful that Sarah Jessica Parker’s columnist character could afford today’s estimated rent of $6,000. Nor could she afford to buy the unit, which would be worth an estimated $1.4 million if the building went condo. 

Not all famous houses are worth nearly that much, though. Take the “Breaking Bad” house at 3828 Piermont Dr. in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The place where Walter White (Bryan Cranston) cooked up meth is worth just $352,300 on today’s market, according to Zillow. 

Since this is Halloween weekend, let’s end with a look at a famous horror house. “The Amityville Horror” took place in the New York town of the same name, but the movie house is located in Toms River, New Jersey. The four-bedroom property sold last year for $1.5 million. 

Lew Sichelman has been covering real estate for more than 50 years. He is a regular contributor to numerous shelter magazines and housing and housing-finance industry publications. Readers can contact him at lsichelman@aol.com.