Could Seinfeld Really Pay His Rent?

• August 22, 2014
• 1 Comment

by UrbanTurf Staff

As you were laughing at the interplay between Monica and Rachel on the TV show Friends back in the 1990s, you may have also wondered how in the world they were able to afford such a spacious New York City apartment.

According to Movoto, the answer is barely.

Chris Kolmar over at the real estate website did some number crunching for the characters on fifteen popular sitcoms to determine if their estimated salaries could afford the rent for where they lived. Kolmar used the conventional thinking that a rent below 30 percent of a tenant’s gross income is affordable, but anything above that is not.

Here is a quick snapshot.

• As a stand-up comedian, Jerry Seinfeld made $7,700 a month, which was right on the cusp of being enough to pay the $2,500/month, 1990s rent on his 850 square-foot Upper West Side apartment.
• Monica and Rachel — a chef and a fashion coordinator — were not in a position to afford their 1,125 square-foot Greenwich Village apartment. Together, they made $9,300 a month, which meant that the $5,000/month rent was above 50 percent of their gross income.
• The person that was in way over their head when it came to paying for housing? Danny Tanner of Full House. His monthly salary of $8,000/month as host of Wake Up San Francisco couldn’t even cover the monthly mortgage of $10,600 at his San Francisco home.

For the full infographic, click here.

This article originally published at http://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/could_seinfeld_really_pay_his_rent/8907

1 Comment

1. Stephen said at 9:51 pm on Friday August 22, 2014:
   I hate to admit I know this little bit of Friends trivia, but they (Monica and Rachel) could afford the apartment because Monica moved into her Grandmother's rent controlled apartment, and I believe Grandma's name was still on it.