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The classic Christmas movie Home Alone was filmed in a house in Winnetka, Illinois, a suburb north of Chicago. It would cost a great deal to live in the house in 1990. Now, however, it would be even more expensive to raise a family in the home. New research explores how much it would cost to raise a family in the home today.

Raising a family in the ‘Home Alone’ house would cost a great deal

In Home Alone, the McCallister family lives in a five-bedroom home outside of Chicago. John Heard and Catherine O’Hara portray parents raising five children. According to research by InvestorsObserver, in 1990, it would have cost around $6,700–$8,300 per year to raise each child. 

Today, that cost is significantly higher. Research shows that in Winnetka, it costs approximately $32,978 per child, per year. In total, it would cost them nearly $165,000 to raise their family. This only includes basic needs like food, medical expenses, and childcare. In the film, the entire family flies to Paris, which would, of course, significantly drive up yearly expenses. 

As Chicago’s median income is $129,000, the family would need to make significantly more than this to comfortably raise their family in the home.

“McCallisters were not a regular family,  and the life portrayed in Home Alone is far from affordable for most Americans,” Sam Bourgi, a senior analyst at InvestorsObserver, tells Showbiz Cheat Sheet in an emailed statement. “With five children and all the potential expenses, they are more likely to be closer to the 1% wealth category, rather than the average family, which would fall in hundreds of thousands of debt in their case.”

The ‘Home Alone’ house will undergo restorations

In 2024, the five-bedroom, six-bathroom Home Alone house sold for $5.5 million. News of the sale went viral, at least in part because of how different the home looked. The home, which had a cozy, nostalgic look in the film, looked far more modern and minimalist in the listing. After some backlash, the home will undergo a restoration.

“Our vision is to bring back the warmth and just the love from the movie,” project manager Scott Price told NBC Chicago, adding, “There was so many great colors, and it just made you feel like family and like home, and we want to bring that magic back.”

While the home is privately owned, fans of the movie can view it from the outside.

Macaulay Culkin shared his idea for another ‘Home Alone’ film

This year marks the 35th anniversary of Home Alone. In the years since the original, a number of sequels have come out. Macaulay Culkin starred in the first two films, but stepped away from the franchise after Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. The subsequent films failed to impress him. Still, he said he is not opposed to revisiting the movies. 

Culkin said that in his version of a Home Alone film, his character, Kevin, would have a distant relationship with his kid and leave him home alone.

“There’s one of two ways you can do it,” he said, per The Hollywood Reporter. “One, he actually leaves the kid behind by mistake; he calls up his mom like, ‘So sorry, I get it now.’ Or I leave him behind on purpose, like, ‘Oh, that made me the man I am today.’”

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He said he wanted to see Kevin attempt to get into the house while his child tries to keep him out.

“Then he locks me out of the house, and he’s setting up traps and things like that. And I think I see them coming because, you know, I’m the expert,” he said. “It also explains why I don’t call the police or locksmith because I’m embarrassed my kid is beating me, and this is my gig. And I think the house would be kind of a metaphor for getting back into the kid’s heart kind of thing.”

Director Chris Columbus said he has also thought about ways to revisit the films, but only if Culkin, Joe Pesci, and Daniel Stern returned.

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