Experts say ‘Home Alone’ family was in the 1%
Taking a huge family — minus one — on a Christmas trip to Paris might have been your first tip-off that the family from Home Alone was loaded, and you’d be right for assuming that.
In fact, they’re in the 1%.
That’s according to a deep dive the New York Times did on the McCallister family’s finances, with a little help from experts from Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
First off, there’s the stately Chicago home that Macaulay Culkin‘s Kevin vowed to defend from Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern‘s bumbling Wet Bandit robbery team.
The home itself, 671 Lincoln Avenue in the Chicago suburb of Winnetka, sits in one of the most expensive neighborhoods in the United States, Realtor.com offers.
Back in 2022, Zillow estimated the house’s price at about $2.4 million.
The Times re-wound the clock back to 1990, when the movie was released. According to economists, Kevin’s parents — played by John Heard and Catherine O’Hara in the film — would have had to be bringing in $305,000 a year to afford that house. That translates to more than $716,000 a year today.
That’s not bad considering we never learned what Kevin’s forgetful parents actually do for a living — though a novelization of the hit film says Kevin’s mom is in the fashion industry, while Kevin’s dad is a generic businessman.
Todd Strasser, who wrote the book, offered, “I don’t know how much the McAllisters made, but it sure did a lot for my bank account.”
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