Realtor.com
The classic San Francisco Victorian made famous in the hit ’90s sitcom “Full House” has hit the market again, this time for a staggering $6.5 million.
With a price tag like that, we couldn’t help wondering: How wildly unrealistic would it be for the show’s fictional hero, father-of-three Danny Tanner, to afford this house today?
To catch up on “Full House” fanatics, Tanner (played by the late Bob Saget) worked as a morning co-host on the news show “Wake Up, San Francisco.” Currently, TV news anchors in the area have a median income of $53,000 a year.
Not surprisingly, this salary falls woefully short of what he’d need to afford this Victorian property if he were to buy it right now. In fact, lenders probably would laugh him out of the bank.
Realtor.com
“Assuming today’s mortgage rate of 6.99%, a 20% down payment, and a 1.7% tax and insurance rate, the minimum recommended income for a $6.5 million home purchase would be $1,755,000,” explains senior economist Hannah Jones. “The monthly mortgage payment, including tax and insurance, would be roughly $44,000.”
In other words, there is simply no way that Tanner could be a morning news anchor in today’s San Francisco Bay Area and live in that house.
“Unsurprisingly, there is effectively no way to save to purchase a $6.5 million home on a $50,000 annual salary,” Jones concludes.
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In fact, 80% of San Francisco salaries go only as high as $195,750. Million-dollar-plus salaries are so rare, even in Silicon Valley, that ZipRecruiter doesn’t even track them.
And let’s not forget that Tanner was raising three kids on his own. So that’s an additional cost of $51,000 a year for the trio. (Probably more, given the high cost of the area.)
So what would Tanner have to do for a living today to afford this house?
According to a post in Median, the most likely jobs to earn that kind of dough would be surgeon, investment banker, corporate executive, attorney, pro athlete, tech bro, real estate developer, or hedge fund manager.
Aerial Canvas
Puts a different spin on things, doesn’t it?
If Tanner had one of those high-pressure jobs, how would he have had the time to hang out at the Victorian, cracking jokes with his kids, Uncle Jesse, and best friend Joey? How would he have met co-anchor Rebecca, who went on to marry Uncle Jesse?
If it seems unfair that the affable TV anchor wouldn’t be able to afford this famous Victorian anymore, think of it like this: In 1990, when “Full House” aired, the home had a price tag of $725,000.
He couldn’t have afforded it then, either.
Yet, while news anchors might not have any hope of scrounging together the cash for this house, apparently successful sitcom directors can indeed swing these payments.
In 2016, “Full House” creator Jeff Franklin purchased this property for $4 million, with plans to capitalize on its fame. He intended to revamp the home in a full “Full House” style that would have rendered the interior and exterior reminiscent of the familiar TV dwelling.
However, when Franklin’s new neighbors got wind of the proposal, they raised a ruckus. So he turned to plan B: a beautiful and classic home makeover. With the ritzy reboot complete, he priced the home at $5.9 million and sold it in 2020 for $5.3 million.