# How much would it cost to live on Wisteria Lane? (Desperate Housewives) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 22, 2005, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-would-it-cost-to-live-on-wisteria-lane-desperate-housewives/295657 "2005-03-22T00:35:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Thylacinewas\_taken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c67d28/32.png) [@Thylacinewas\_taken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thylacinewas_taken)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2005, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-would-it-cost-to-live-on-wisteria-lane-desperate-housewives/295657/1 "2005-03-22T00:35:39Z")
In Desperate Housewives, everyone has a gigantic house. How much would a house like that cost? When I took a children’s book illustration course, the teacher said it wasn’t very lucrative, so I don’t know how Teri Hatcher has that mansion! Maybe I’m bitter that my short-lived interest in being a children’s book illustrator didn’t pan out. ---
**Author:** ![Thylacinewas\_taken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c67d28/32.png) [@Thylacinewas\_taken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thylacinewas_taken)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2005, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-would-it-cost-to-live-on-wisteria-lane-desperate-housewives/295657/2 "2005-03-22T00:36:45Z")
How much would a house like that cost in their area, that is. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2005, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-would-it-cost-to-live-on-wisteria-lane-desperate-housewives/295657/3 "2005-03-22T00:39:13Z")
About a hundred dollars. Yeah. About a hundred dollars. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2005, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-would-it-cost-to-live-on-wisteria-lane-desperate-housewives/295657/4 "2005-03-22T00:45:05Z")
Presumably Susan got the house she shared with her husband in the divorce along with sufficient support to keep up the mortgage payments. Her illustrating probably isn’t her primary means of support; the alimony probably is. ---
**Author:** ![shelbo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3d9bf3/32.png) [@shelbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shelbo)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2005, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-would-it-cost-to-live-on-wisteria-lane-desperate-housewives/295657/5 "2005-03-22T00:58:26Z")
What city are they a suburb of? ---
**Author:** ![Thylacinewas\_taken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c67d28/32.png) [@Thylacinewas\_taken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thylacinewas_taken)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2005, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-would-it-cost-to-live-on-wisteria-lane-desperate-housewives/295657/6 "2005-03-22T01:05:20Z")
> [@shelbo](#): > > What city are they a suburb of? I’m not sure. They’ve never specified. I think it’s supposed to be a generic suburb that could be anywhere. ---
**Author:** ![GraceTX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c4cdca/32.png) [@GraceTX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GraceTX)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2005, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-would-it-cost-to-live-on-wisteria-lane-desperate-housewives/295657/7 "2005-03-22T02:12:05Z")
It really would depend on which suburb. The houses on Wisteria Lane are nice, but you could probably get them for $200,000 - $300,000 in Plano. They’d probably be million dollar homes in areas outside of L.A. I always get the impression that Wisteria Lane is in the Midwest. Maybe it’s that Gabriella is forced to work at auto shows instead of going to the city. Or maybe because of the lake that Susan and Edie went to when they were scattering Martha’s ashes. I don’t know what it is, but that’s what I always picture. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2005, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-would-it-cost-to-live-on-wisteria-lane-desperate-housewives/295657/8 "2005-03-22T05:04:09Z")
In San Jose, those homes would cost $1.5 million and possibly more. In Toronto, $600,000. In Little Rock, $350,000. Location, location, location. ---
**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2005, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-would-it-cost-to-live-on-wisteria-lane-desperate-housewives/295657/9 "2005-03-22T05:25:43Z")
Would it be realistic for Mike to live there on a plumbers salary? What about Edie on a real estage agent’s salary? ---
**Author:** ![Thylacinewas\_taken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c67d28/32.png) [@Thylacinewas\_taken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thylacinewas_taken)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2005, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-would-it-cost-to-live-on-wisteria-lane-desperate-housewives/295657/10 "2005-03-23T00:29:02Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > In San Jose, those homes would cost $1.5 million and possibly more. > > In Toronto, $600,000. > > In Little Rock, $350,000. > > Location, location, location. I’m surprised that there are places that cost so much more than Toronto! What makes San Jose so expensive? ---
**Author:** ![Thylacinewas\_taken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c67d28/32.png) [@Thylacinewas\_taken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thylacinewas_taken)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2005, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-would-it-cost-to-live-on-wisteria-lane-desperate-housewives/295657/11 "2005-03-23T00:32:38Z")
> [@Shalmanese](#): > > Would it be realistic for Mike to live there on a plumbers salary? > > What about Edie on a real estage agent’s salary? Mike is being paid by a mysterious man to find his daughter (or her remains), but come to think of it, it’s gullible of Susan to not realize that he might have other sources of income. Don’t real estate agents do well? I don’t know much about real estate, but let’s say she gets paid 6% the value of each house she sells (I think I heard that number somewhere), and each house is worth as much as her own, she’d have to sell 17 houses to have earned the entire amount of her house. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2005, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-would-it-cost-to-live-on-wisteria-lane-desperate-housewives/295657/12 "2005-03-23T00:39:24Z")
> [@Thylacinewas taken](#): > > Don’t real estate agents do well? I don’t know much about real estate, but let’s say she gets paid 6% the value of each house she sells (I think I heard that number somewhere), and each house is worth as much as her own, she’d have to sell 17 houses to have earned the entire amount of her house. Well, the 6% commission does have to cover expenses, so it’s not quite that simple. That said, having an income that is directly tied to the local price of housing would approximately cancel out the issue. ---
**Author:** ![gazpacho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6f9a4e/32.png) [@gazpacho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gazpacho)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2005, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-would-it-cost-to-live-on-wisteria-lane-desperate-housewives/295657/13 "2005-03-23T00:44:08Z")
> [@Thylacinewas taken](#): > > I’m surprised that there are places that cost so much more than Toronto! What makes San Jose so expensive? The Bay area is a great place to live. High paying high tech jobs. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2005, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-would-it-cost-to-live-on-wisteria-lane-desperate-housewives/295657/14 "2005-03-23T01:30:37Z")
> [@Shalmanese](#): > > Would it be realistic for Mike to live there on a plumbers salary? > > What about Edie on a real estage agent’s salary? Full time plumbers in the U.S. average about $46,000 per year. Full time real estate agents in the U.S. average about $43,000 per year. Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2003. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2005, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-would-it-cost-to-live-on-wisteria-lane-desperate-housewives/295657/15 "2005-03-23T04:00:48Z")
> [@Grace](#): > > I always get the impression that Wisteria Lane is in the Midwest. I thought I remembered that Illinois was specified as the state… ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2005, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-would-it-cost-to-live-on-wisteria-lane-desperate-housewives/295657/16 "2005-03-23T04:06:14Z")
[The Chicago Tribune](http://www.chicagotribune.com/chi-decblog.story) has a clue: > [@](#): > > On Sunday’s episode of “Desperate Housewives,” it sure looked look as though Edie Britt picked up a Chicago Tribune from Mrs. Huber’s porch. > > When Britt, Mrs. Huber’s former roommate, picked up one newspaper from a pile on the local busybody’s porch, part of the top of the newspaper was visible, including a bright blue banner. The newspaper was folded, but the word “Tribune” was visible, preceded by what looked like the letters “-ago.” ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2005, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-would-it-cost-to-live-on-wisteria-lane-desperate-housewives/295657/17 "2005-03-23T05:18:59Z")
A fairly useful general rule on American TV is that characters always live in houses or apartments that people with their jobs could never actually afford to live in. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Big\_Cheese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8baadc/32.png) [@The\_Big\_Cheese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Big_Cheese)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2005, 11:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-would-it-cost-to-live-on-wisteria-lane-desperate-housewives/295657/18 "2005-03-23T11:03:39Z")
Waukesha is a suburb of Milwaukee, and there is a Wisteria Lane there. I know, I grew up on it, lived on Wisteria Lane from 2nd grade until college. And believe me, there were never any women like that on that street. It seems so weird to hear it being said every week. But I’m sure it wasn’t my street since we’re covered in snow 1/3 of the year. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2005, 11:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-would-it-cost-to-live-on-wisteria-lane-desperate-housewives/295657/19 "2005-03-23T11:17:25Z")
For trivia buffs Wisteria Lane from Desperate Housewives is Colonial Street at Universal Studios. It has been used in films since the James Stewart comedy Harvey and was the setting for the movie Leave It to Beaver and for TV series including Murder She Wrote and The Munsters. Apparently it used a lot.