Remember the “Home Alone” movie? Of course you do! You probably watched it several times as a kid. You probably watched the movie every Christmas and have all of the lines memorised. At the very least, you know the name of the hero in the movie: Kevin McCallister. The beloved Christmas comedy was released in 1990 and tells the story of Kevin McCallister, the 8-year-old boy who is the black sheep of his family.
He’s left behind at home when his family rushes off to Paris for Christmas. If this movie were set in 2023, the mother would be frantically texting her son at home or searching for him on social media. In any case, Kevin is initially excited to be left alone in a house that looks like a gigantic mansion. Hijinx ensue when two burglars try to rob the place when Kevin is left home alone. The ingenious eight-year-old arms the house with a series of booby traps, turning the house into a formidable fortress.
The biggest question the movie leaves unanswered, however, is how Kevin’s father could afford that giant mansion. (If you haven’t seen the movie, check out clips on YouTube to see how massive the “home” is.) The Federal Reserves an answer: Kevin McCallister’s family is part of the one percent of Chicago’s residents (or perhaps mobsters, as some have speculated.)
The New York Times now has an answer: the Federal Reserve has determined that Kevin McCallister’s family is in the top 1% of Chicago residents based on the value of their home.
According to the New York Times: “In 1990, the house was affordable only for the top 1 per cent of Chicago household incomes, and that would still be the case today.” For a house as massive as the one in “Home Alone,” The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago estimates that the home would have likely been affordable with an income of $305,000 in 1990. In today’s terms, that’s roughly about $665,000 as of 2022. ($300k is likely considered chump change for a home today, in certain places.)
Peter and his wife, Kate McCallister, would have had to have been earning at least $305,000 annually in 1990 to afford the massive mansion, which sits on the North Shore of Chicago.
It is also not cheap to take fifteen family members for a Christmas vacation to Paris. No wonder fans of the beloved movie have constantly speculated on how rich the McCallister family is. The movie, of course, never reveals what his father does for a living (hence the speculation that he was a mobster).
You can read more about the McCallister family here.
Updated: June 2024