How Having A Famous Home Really Affects A Neighborhood

One of the best things about house hunting is imagining your prospective home and what it would be like to live there. It's the place where you will take your evening walks after a long day of hitting deadlines. It's where you visit your neighborhood diner or coffee hang-out, just as the "Friends" cast did on the beloved sitcom. It's where you can't wait to get back to after an incredible vacation at a unique Airbnb rental. Let's be honest: Sometimes you're buying into the vibes of the neighborhood. Although we may make our home buying decision based on whether a kitchen has the right countertops or if the bathroom has high-end upgrades, we also consider the neighborhood and other homes nearby.

Now imagine that you're about to buy a place that has been on TV or a movie (think "Home Alone," "The Addams Family," "Clueless," or "Ferris Bueller's Day Off"). Hey, it can happen! These famous homes can cost in the millions in most cases, per Quicken Loans. Just consider for a moment how that famous home would affect your neighborhood.

We've seen how having an HGTV home can change a community, good and bad, but let's delve in and see how living in a well-known home can affect things like property taxes, which can vary across the country, according to WalletHub. The value of your home depends on several factors that can contribute to a home's worth.

Besides the bragging rights of living in a notable "TV" home, interest in neighboring properties, rising property values, and higher taxes can be expected. For instance, according to the Chicago Tribune, the "Home Alone" house sold in 2015 for $1.585 million, and the property taxes are a whopping $30,183, per Zillow.

Fortunately, a home that has Hollywood exposure can usually pay off financially. Terry Sciubba of Sherlock Homes Realty told The New York Times that a home being featured in a movie or commercial "will draw attention to a house. It adds flavor to it." Sciubba gave an example of where she sold a home twice over several years; the house was the location of the 1981 film "Endless Love" featuring Brooke Shields. "All the brochures said it was featured in the movie," she noted. 

Living in a famous home can significantly affect a neighborhood — in turn, making it well-known, and bringing in a slew of tourists year-round. However, a famous house does not always get immediate sales. Per Curbed, the Highland Park glasshouse home that Cameron Frye famously resided in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," located in the Chicago suburbs, was on the market for five years. It originally went on the market for $2.4 million but ended up selling for a much lower amount of $1.06 million — and no, the 1961 Ferrari 250 GT California Spyder was not included!