For over thirty years, Homer Simpson has been able to support his wife and three kids on just one salary. They can afford family vacations, a car, and, although money is often tight, a four-bedroom detached home in a typical American suburb. The only problem? The Simpson family home isn\u2019t within Homer\u2019s budget in real life in 2025. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s not Homer\u2019s fault; a lot of beloved TV characters have salaries that don\u2019t translate to homeownership in the real world. While this is partly because of the creative liberties of TV, rising home prices also play a role. In 1990, the median home price in New York City was under $200,000<\/a>, and by 2025 it climbed above $700,000 \u2014 a more than 250% jump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, which TV characters have jobs that support buying a home in 2025? A lot fewer than you\u2019d expect. Zoocasa analyzed the salaries of 100 TV characters and calculated the maximum home price each could afford based on their income. We then compared that figure to the median home price in their respective cities to determine whether TV character home affordability aligned with real-world housing costs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n While we did our best to estimate average annual incomes based on data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Indeed, and ZipRecruiter, some characters’ sources of income were more dubious (I’m looking at you, Walter White). For this reason, annual salaries do not account for any other sources of compensation such as stocks, inherited wealth, or non-legal means of income. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Similarly, some home prices were easier to find than others. The cities of Springfield, Seymour\u2019s Bay, Stars Hollow, Dillon, Lanford, Point Place, Pawnee, Twin Peaks, and Arlen, for instance, do not exist in real life. In this case, we used nearby cities and states to help make our estimates. <\/p>\n\n\n