The original house from the first Home Alone movie was recently listed for a single night on Airbnb, prompting a sudden flurry of questions about the property.
The massive six-bedroom Georgian at 671 Lincoln Avenue has become a historical landmark of sorts for fans of the film. It remains a popular tourist destination for visitors to the Chicago suburb where it resides. It’s been more than 30 years since Kevin McCallister transformed the home into a piece of Chicago’s history, but those years have only served to make the location more popular.
The recent Airbnb listing is inspiring questions about the ownership of the home, thanks in part to the listing’s carefully-crafted page. It claims to be hosted by “Buzz,” Kevin’s bullish older brother in the early 90s holiday films. This is obviously intended as part of the rental’s appeal—it offers a fully immersive experience for the lucky renter who manages to cinch the listing. Rather than discuss matters with a real person, the Airbnb listing allows prospective renters to enjoy the illusion that they’ll be borrowing the home from the eldest McCallister son.
In reality, the actor who played Buzz—Devin D. Ratray—lives in New York. The gorgeous red brick home on Lincoln Avenue actually belongs to an unidentified family who purchased the property back in 2011. In 1988, a few years before Home Alone hit theaters, the house was sold to John and Cynthia Abenshien for a whopping $800,000. The couple maintained ownership of the home for more than a decade before listing it in 2011 for $2.4 million. It was reportedly sold the following year to the current owners, who managed to haggle the Abenshiens down to $1.585 million, according to Market Realist.
The current owners remain unlisted, but are reportedly fine with the hordes of visitors their home receives each year.
The home is currently listed on Zillow for $2,062,400 but is not currently on the market. The current owners appear perfectly content at their current address, particularly with potentially lucrative possibilities—like more Airbnb dates in the future—on the table.