Seems to me very few people in sit-coms could actually afford the apartments they live in.
Does anyone know how much an these apartments would rent for
Friends - Monica & Rachel’s
Friends - The Guy’s Apt
Seinfeld - Jerrys Apt
What about others. I was wondering how much a house in San Fran, like the one in Full House would cost?
Even in Good Times their “Ghetto Apt” is 10 times as nice as mine. The project apts I’ve seen ain’t that nice.
Sitcom apartments are, fittingly, a joke.
You ask about Monica’s apartment on Friends. Well, when my GF lived in Manhattan, her entire apartment could have fit into Monica’s living room. This was a three-bedroom place, with a small bathroom and smaller kitchen.
She lived on the upper east side, which is a decent area, but not the best in the city. Between them, she and her two roommates paid a total of $1800 in rent every month. (That’s not a typo, it really does say eighteen hundred dollars.) This was somewhat less than the going rate in that area, a couple of years ago.
If you could find an apartment the size of Monica’s place, in a safe area of the city, you could easily expect to pay five thousand dollars in rent every month.
Well here is my shot.
Friends, Monica and Rachel’s apartment, assuming it is somewhere in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood (cheaper) to the 80’s block (some nicer neighborhoods) would rent for $1525…Cozy 2BR + d/w, 80E (New York Times) to 2BRs From $3620…30 West 63rd Street (off of Lincoln Park).
The first listing is for a very cheap apartment in a fairly crappy neighborhood in Manhattan. These prices would be even higher if it was in a choice neighborhood in Chelsea or Greenwich Village, considerably less if it were located in one of the outer buroughs (it wasn’t).
Now for the Townhome in Full House. Assuming that it had 6 bedrooms… One for the two older girls, one for the father, one for the olsen whores, one for the the blond guy, and one for the dark haired guy and his wife, and one for the dark haired guys kid who was born later. Also this place had several bathrooms, and a basement. Assuming it is downtown, it would sale for over $500,000 according to newhomes.com. That price was for a 4 bedroom 2.5 bath house. There were no 5 or 6 bedroom places listed. I doubt that you would be able to rent that type of place easily.
SC
“People’s Poet don’t die, we’ll kill ourselves if you do, but first we’ll take off all our clothes.” The Young Ones
OH and Jerry’s apartment in Manhattan I believe was in the 80s blocks somewhere and would rent for just over $1500 a month.
SC
“People’s Poet don’t die, we’ll kill ourselves if you do, but first we’ll take off all our clothes.” The Young Ones
IIRC, Monica & Rachel are fraudulently using the rent control law of NY to have a cheap rent.
The worst part of TV apartments is that they only have three walls.
What about the house on Married With Children? How can a shoe salesman afford a decent (tacky, yes, but decent) three bedroom house in a Chicago suburb?
That one’s easy.
He bought the house in the 70’s when it probably cost less than $15,000. 
Sorry about all the posts. I have been researching houses since I have been looking to buy something soon.
“People’s Poet don’t die, we’ll kill ourselves if you do, but first we’ll take off all our clothes.” The Young Ones
I don’t watch Friends. I didn’t think Seinfeld’s was such-a-much. Mine’s nicer than his - I have two bedrooms and 1 1/2 baths and a balcony. I pay $855 a month (plus $10 for the cats - that kills me). Much depends on where you live - I’m in Maryland suburb of D.C.
Oh, the sad truth.
The guys’ apartment in Friends is a 2 bedroom with a large living room and a (near) eat-in kitchen with an island. IIRC, it’s portrayed to be on Bedford Street in the West Village (good). The windows face the back (bad) and are only in the bedrooms (also bad). Market rent, about $3,000 to $3,600/month. Rent-controlled rent, $1,600 - $1,800, but it would never come on the market. Count on bribing the super two to three month’s rent if you read Chandler’s obit. Chandler can afford it, Joey’s mooching.
The girls’ apartment, across the hall, is unrentable at any price. With that window, are you kidding? And a balcony? Theoretically, it would go for at least $5,000 – $6,000 in that neighborhood and you’d be happy to get it. If they are taking advantage of the rent stabilization rules, a real landlord would bust them in a second for a chance to put that baby on the market
For both apartments, add $250 or so if there’s an elevator (I think there is) and another $300 – $400 if there’s a doorman.
Jerry’s apartment is on W. 81st Street, between Columbus and Amsterdam. It’s a fairly mundane, if large, one-bedroom. Elevator, no doorman (IIRC). He’s on a fairly high floor, facing south (good). Assume that his unseen bedroom is of decent size. Call it $3,000 plus a one-time realtor’s fee of $5,400. Add $350/month if he parks the Saab in the building.
But I’m not apartment hunting or anything.
Livin’ on Tums, Vitamin E and Rogaine
Wowee zowee… I’m just a white trash hick from Or-ee-gon payin’ $788 a month to buy my 3 bedroom, 2 bath, double wide trailor house, and barely making that payment as it is. How on earth can anyone afford to live in New York? What is minimum wage there, $50 an hour? Sheesh!
“I hope life isn’t a big joke, because I don’t get it,” Jack Handy
In Full House originally it was like this:
Dad, two girls sharing a room, a baby, Joey slept in the alcove off the living room, and Jesse had a room.
Soon, Joey moved into the basement.
The baby grew up (she may have been played by twins, but she was a singular entity in the show) and kept her own room.
So it’s a four bedroom house, I think. With the basement/garage also being Joey’s room.
Later, when everybody started getting hitched and churning out more smart-arse plot-point developers, i.e. kids, they moved everybody in to justify the show’s title. When really, Jesse and his woman (can’t remember her name) should have had their own place.
By the way, the exterior establishing shots for the Full House San Fran apartment are now used in ‘Jesse’ with Christina Applegate. I think.
Pretty easily apparently (although I can’t vouch for decency):
From http://www.century21homes.com Property Search:
“You searched for single family detached homes in the Chicagoland area in the price range from $0 to $100000 with 3 or more bedrooms and 1 or more bathrooms.”
It came up with 399 listings.
Some of them:
$31500
Rockford
5 Bed / 1.5 Bath
$42300
Rockford
4 Bed / 3.0 Bath
$44900
Chicago Heights
3 Bed / 1.0 Bath
$44900
Round Lake Beach
3 Bed / 1.1 Bath
$64900
Waukegan
3 Bed / 1.0 Bath
Any guesses about the very coolest of TV apartments? (Paul and Jamie Buchman’s place in “Mad About You”)
Here in Des Moines, you’d pay about 650/mo for it (since it was only a one-bedroom), no utils included, extra 30/mo for a dog as big as Murray.
Veni, Vidi, Visa … I came, I saw, I bought.
My GF and I share an apartment in the suburbs of St. Louis, in a very nice area. We pay $595 per month. Despite having fewer rooms, it is significantly larger than my GF’s aforementioned Manhattan apartment, which went for $1800 per month.
So yeah, the cost of living in Manhattan sucks. Salaries are higher there, but not usually by enough to make up the difference. (A programming job like mine would pay about $10,000 more per year, in Manhattan, than it does in St. Louis. But my living expenses would be around $20,000 higher.)
Of course I don’t fit in; I’m part of a better puzzle.
I’ve only seen the show a couple of times, but the apartment in Dharma & Greg looks pretty cool, too. Thank goodness I don’t live in NYC, though…geez that stuff is expensive!
Well, since you asked…
It’s easier than it sounds. The biggest thing is that we don’t have cars. Add your car payment, gas, insurance, repairs and parking to your monthly housing cost, subtract out $100-$200 for a metrocard, taxicabs and the occasional rent-a-car and most of the difference goes away.
We also don’t live in TV apartments. I’m about a block from where the Friends apartment is supposed to be, but I live in a walkup about a third the size of Chandler’s place, so it’s much more affordable. It would be cheaper still if the apartment were west of Greenwich Street (at least now – that area’s starting to get hot).
Many of us have roommates. There would normally be three of four people in Chandler’s apartment. If Rachael’s apartment somehow came on the market, it would have people stacked into it like planes over O’Hare in a snowstorm.
And we cheat. Lots of people illegally sublet at old, rent-controlled rates plus a profit to the sublessor. If the market rent is under three grand or so, the landlord’s cost to get us out usually exceeds the benefits of increasing rent to the next tenant.
And here’s the fun part: Lots of really cool stuff happens here absolutely free or really cheap if you know where to look. Bet you didn’t see Springsteen perform in a bar for a $10 cover. Or the Dali Lama.
And IIRC, Paul & Jamie lived in a co-op building (at least the picture on the show is a co-op). Lower Fifth Ave, very desirable, but a one-bedroom, when everyone buying wants a two or bigger. Call it $350,000 to $500,000, depending on the maintenance.
Livin’ on Tums, Vitamin E and Rogaine
Can you tell us how rent control works? It’s been mentioned several times here, and I don’t know exactly what it means.
Example of rent control: (hope I’m doing this correctly)
You rent an apartment in 1985 for 700/mo. and live there for 10 years. In that time, the rent can only be raised 1-3% as the rent market values increase (and I believe only once a year, IIRC).
If your rent has been raised an average of 2% every year, the tenth year you’re paying $836.58/mo. When you move out, the landlord can rerent the place for current value, probably 1300, give or take.
Again IIRC, it isn’t a property-to-property thing. Either your city has rent control, or it doesn’t. If you live in a city that has it, make sure you’re going to be living in the same place for a long time.
Correct me if I’m wrong.
Veni, Vidi, Visa … I came, I saw, I bought.
Rent control is a great example of the law of unintended consequences. It’s government interference in the marketplace supposedly to protect renters. In reality, it’s a disaster almost every place it is tried. You wind up with buildings that aren’t maintained properly, shortages of apartments, underground markets for sublet apartments, and skyrocketing rents in the non-rent controlled spaces because of the shortages. It also removes freedom from the people in the rent-controlled apartments, who often get stuck living somewhere they don’t want to be because they simply can’t afford to give up the controlled rent.