'Home Alone' Kevin Revealed as Top 1% Wealthy... Born into a Family with an Annual Income of 900 Million KRW, a True 'Gold Spoon'

Kevin's House Estimated at 3.1 Billion KRW as of 2022

How wealthy was the Kevin family featured in the 1990 movie "Home Alone"?

Movie still from 'Home Alone'.
[Photo by 20th Century Fox Korea]

On the 22nd (local time), The New York Times (NYT) reported, after consulting economists and the production team, that "the Kevin family belongs to the top 1% of the upper class."

The house shown in the movie is large enough for Kevin and his four siblings to each have their own rooms and can accommodate many visitors.

Early in the film, one of the two burglars, Harry (played by Joe Pesci), tells his partner Wet Bandit Marv (played by Daniel Stern) that among the wealthy neighborhoods, the Kevin house is their target. He speculates that Kevin's house would contain expensive items such as a VCR, stereo, and jewelry.

[Photo by Yonhap News]

According to Realtor.com, an American online real estate information company, the silver exterior of the house in the movie is identical to a real house located at 671 Lincoln Avenue in Winnetka, a northeastern suburb of Chicago in Illinois, one of the most expensive housing areas in the United States.

Winnetka, located about 30 km north of downtown Chicago on the shore of Lake Michigan, is one of the affluent neighborhoods in the U.S.

According to economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, at the time the movie was released in 1990, Kevin's house was a property that only the top 1% of households by income in the Chicago area could afford.

Cindy Hull, Vice President of the Chicago Fed, and others examined data on household income, real estate values, mortgage interest rates, taxes, and insurance in the Chicago metropolitan area from 1990 to 2022 before reaching their conclusion.

Movie poster of 'Home Alone'. [Photo by 20th Century Fox Korea]

As of mid-2022, Kevin's house is estimated to be worth about $2.4 million (approximately 3.1 billion KRW). Economists say that to afford a house of this caliber, an annual income of about $730,000 (approximately 950 million KRW) is required, which corresponds to the top 1% of household incomes in the Chicago area.

Meanwhile, the movie does not clearly reveal the occupations of Kevin's parents. However, netizens have speculated that Kevin's mother, Kate (played by Catherine O'Hara), might be a fashion designer, based on the discovery of several mannequins inside the house.