The holiday season is here, and it’s time to re-watch the Home Alone movies. Since the first film premiered in 1990, it has become a fan-favorite Christmas movie. But aside from Kevin McCallister’s (Macaulay Culkin) fight against the burglars called the Wet Bandits, another thing that fans quickly noticed from the movie is how rich the McCallister family is. From their huge house to the family’s trip to Paris for a Christmas vacation, not to mention Kevin’s full-cart grocery spree, the Federal Reserve has just calculated how wealthy the McCallister family is.
The Wealth of the McCallister Family in Home Alone
The McCallister family’s stunning home has caught the eye of the burglars Harry (Joe Pesci) and Marv (Daniel Stern) in the wealthy neighborhood.
“That’s the one, Marv, that’s the silver tuna,” Harry says in the film. The house’s exterior is world-class, as its location, 671 Lincoln Avenue in the Chicago suburb of Winnetka, is one of the most expensive neighborhoods in the U.S., per Realtor.com.
At the time, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago (via The New York Times), only the top 1 percent of Chicago household incomes could afford this house, which would still be the case today.
The New York Times worked with economists and found that the McAllister family from ‘Home Alone’ was in the Top 1% of the wealthy. pic.twitter.com/9OuR84hkv0
— Pop Base (@PopBase) December 22, 2023
The economists Max Gillet, Cindy Hull, and Thomas Walstrum made this determination after looking at the data that included the household incomes in the Chicago metropolitan statistical area for 1990 and 2022, from the house’s property value to mortgage rates, taxes, and insurance.
Assuming that the McCallister family didn’t spend over 30 percent of their income on housing, they supposed they had an income of $305,000 in 1990, which could be $665,000 in 2022, when adjusted for inflation.
So, in the middle of 2022, a similar house would cost about $2.4 million and could only be affordable to a household with an income of $730,000, per Zillow. This would still be part of the top 1 percent in Chicago.
Why is the McCallister Family Rich in Home Alone?
Though Home Alone doesn’t reveal the jobs of Kate (Catherine O’Hara) and Peter McCallister (John Heard), some believe that Kevin’s mom is a fashion designer due to the number of mannequins seen in the house.
Todd Strasser, who wrote the movie’s novel and two of its sequels, said in an interview that he made Kate a fashion designer and Peter, a businessman because it was the “safe bet,” considering the filmmakers didn’t closely supervise what he wrote and let him do what he wanted.
He never explained in detail what they do, though he made him “upper middle class” but “not super-rich.”
They wear nice clothes and hire several vans to take them to the airport. However, when Kate tries to bribe an elderly couple to give them their ticket to get home, she only offers them cash and jewelry but hints that her Rolex may be fake.
https://twitter.com/Timmyyo00/status/1737513590851023334
“I don’t know how much the McCallisters made, but it sure did a lot for my bank account,” he said.
However, one theory claims Peter is involved with organized crime, which makes the family wealthy. This makes their home a target of some vengeance, and Kevin’s ability to fight the burglars violently is the alleged result of his exposure to criminal activity.
With a huge house, luxury vacations, and no-limit credit cards, it can’t be denied that the McCallisters are a rich family in Home Alone. Kevin has everything he needs and even gets everything he wants when he lives solo, without his parents, for days in their home. He even has all the gadgets to use against the burglars and more. So, to rest this case, the parents are probably earning enough for them and getting the help of Peter’s brother to afford the family vacation in Paris.
