How Much Would The House On Full House Cost In Real Life?
In its eight years on the air and 192 episodes, ABC's hit sitcom "Full House" accumulated more than its share of fans, which would prove a struggle for the owner of the San Francisco home depicted in the opening credits and exterior shots of the show. Like most television shows, "Full House" was filmed on a soundstage in Los Angeles, but the opening sequence clearly hints that the Tanner residence is one of the famous "painted ladies," a row of elaborate Victorian-era homes across the street from San Francisco's Alamo Square Park. In real life, the "Full House" house is located at 1709 Broderick Street which is almost one mile from the oft-photographed painted ladies, also known as the seven sisters.
The "Full House" house was built way back in 1883 and comprises over 3,100 square-feet of living space across its multiple stories. Even though fans may have been briefly misled about the location of the house by the "painted ladies" scene in the credits, the real address of the house didn't stay a secret for long. Hoards of fans started to show up daily outside the home, driving the owners to plant a large tree in front for privacy, install a gate across the front steps, and eventually paint the house purple from its original grey-beige hue to disguise it.
It was almost a Full House museum
Perhaps spurred by renewed interest in the home from the Netflix reboot "Fuller House," the San Francisco homeowners eventually got fed up enough with lookie-loos that they decided to list the property for sale in 2016. In an interesting twist, it was purchased for approximately $4 million by none other than Jeff Franklin, the creator of the "Full House" show. Franklin promised to not only restore the exterior to its former glory, but he also had plans to remodel the interior of the home to reflect how it looked on the full house set, which was of course just a Hollywood soundstage. The intention was that once the interiors were completed to mimic the television show, fans could tour the property as an attraction.
As you might imagine, the neighboring homeowners were already distraught with all the traffic from the show and certainly didn't want to encourage more. According to the Stamford Advocate, "[Franklin] acquired all the necessary building permits, and that's when neighbors in Pacific Heights raised a ruckus. They feared the house would become even more of a tourist destination. Devoted fans of the show already flock to the site on a daily basis and cause commotion in the neighborhood."
The Tanners would have been multi-millionaires
The "Full House" house was subsequently renovated (above) by Franklin anyway, even if not in the style of its television counterpart. According to real estate agent Rachel Swann, "It was a great house when Franklin bought it, but they've done a stunning remodel. They've opened up the living spaces to give it more flow and movement." The scope of the renovation also involved adding skylights and an extra bedroom.
Following the renovation, the home was once again listed for sale in May 2019, this time for $6 million. After about 18 months on the market — including during the uncertainty of the Covid-19 pandemic — the home was sold for $5.35 million in October 2020. According to the real estate company Zillow, the value hasn't changed much since then, with a current "Zestimate" of $5.45 million.
In 2022, one of the actual seven "painted ladies" that served as a backdrop to the Tanner family's picnic, was listed for sale at $3.5 million but was later withdrawn from sale without a buyer. That home also has a famous owner in the form of computer programmer and startup investor Leah Culver. Initially, Culver was excited to restore the home's neglected and deteriorating insides to their former glory, but the scope of repair — estimated at $3 million and three years' time — was too daunting, so she relisted the property for sale instead.