The Salary You’d Need to Buy the ‘A Star Is Born’ House

published Dec 19, 2018

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(Image credit: Clay Enos /© Warner Bros./ Courtesy Everett Collection)

Will Bradley Cooper’s latest iteration of “A Star Is Born” sweep the Oscars come February? Perhaps. Did the cozy, secluded home that Cooper’s troubled character Jackson Maine shared with Lady Gaga’s Ally sweep us off our feet? Most definitely.

Though the movie was fiction, the house where some intense jam sessions (and equally intense fighting) took place actually exists in the wild. Curbed reports that the windows-and-wood house is located in the Monte Nido neighborhood of Calabasas, California, and was sold in September 2017 for $2.495 million.

But if you’re daydreaming of locking yourself away and finding your own creative muse, you want to know what level of stardom you’d need to attain to afford this house. Surprisingly, you wouldn’t have to be a multi-platinum artist for this one, but you would have to be a manager or another successful music industry exec.

If you paid a 10 percent down payment on the pad and took out a 30-year fixed mortgage (at the current interest rate of 4.553 percent), you’d be paying about $12,637 per month. Based upon the guideline that your mortgage should take up 28 percent of your pre-tax monthly income, you’d need to earn an annual household income of about $542,000 to afford to live in this home… so get writing! (or ask your BFF if you can sing at his drag night this weekend?)

So it’s a beautiful home, but would you want to live there?

“The Monte Nido section of Calabasas is very desirable, especially if you like open space, hiking trails, and close proximity to Malibu beaches,” said Jordan Cohen, a Calabasas specialist and the estates director for RE/MAX Olson in Westlake Village. “It’s a very rustic area surrounded by the Santa Monica Mountains. It’s a good 10 minutes from shopping markets and the 101 freeway.”

If you like to rub elbows with the rich and famous, Calabasas might be for you, too. According to Cohen, it’s filled with celebrities, professional athletes, and CEOs—oh my!

“People who want to live in Beverly Hills, Bel Air, and Brentwood are flocking to Calabasas and Hidden Hills because you get a lot more for your money,” he said. “It’s also within 30 minutes to downtown Los Angeles.”

It’s also important to point out that the median home price in Calabasas actually falls a little lower than the “A Star is Born” home. According to Zillow, it comes in at around $1,500,000. For that price range, you’ll find homes like this 2,871-square-foot home listed by Mark Moskowitz. It has four bedrooms and four bathrooms and—come on now—views that last for miles!

(Image credit: Mark Moskowitz/Keller Williams)

Slightly larger (and a few pennies more) is this current listing from Barbara Radke, priced at $1,700,000. At 3,306 square feet, this four-bedroom, four-bath home gives you plenty of space for you, your muse, your sibling manager, and anyone else in your entourage—plus some needed hideaway space to find that next award-winning song or film buried in the depths of your soul. The house was built in 1980, which means it’s older than Lady Gaga, who was born in 1986. And if you ever feel too tortured by your art, the home is located near Calabasas Commons, the outdoor shopping hub of the area, for some shallower retail therapy.

(Image credit: Barbara Radke/Keller Williams)

Cohen explains that the overall Southern California real estate market has cooled due to the rise in interest rates and negative publicity about the real estate market. But he has faith in this area, in particular, because of the gorgeous homes, beautiful views, and (relatively) affordable square footage.

“I strongly believe areas like Calabasas, Hidden Hills, which is right across the freeway from Calabasas, and Westlake Village, will hold stronger than areas in Los Angeles and values will go up,” he says.

So is everything sunny in Calabasas? Or is it hiding anything from its fans? Cohen was quick to answer.

“Oh, that’s easy,” he said. “The only negative to Calabasas is the battle with the 101 freeway. If you work in Los Angeles, you have to take the 101 freeway to get there, so it’s traffic. What should take 15 minutes usually takes 45 during heavy traffic. But people who live here are willing to deal with it for what they get.”