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Which Celebs’ Childhood Homes Get Marked Up the Most?

What’s the price of fame? Truth be told, we’re not even remotely concerned with the psychic toll on the rich and fabulous. No, our obsessions run toward real estate—such as the added value that a celebrity connection might bring to a home.

Take the childhood homes of the stars. How much extra would you pay to roam the halls where a toddler Miley Cyrus first twerked, a pint-size Bobby De Niro first practiced “You talkin’ to me?” in his bedroom mirror, or a wee Donny Trump began comparing his tiny hands to those of his little rich kid pals?

The real answer: We have no idea! Because the childhood homes of those celebrities aren’t on the market. So we focused on seven that are or recently have been.

Our star-struck data team crunched the numbers on recently listed homes of the now-famous to see how their asking prices compare with those of similar residences (determined by the number of bedrooms, home type, and property acreage) for sale in the same ZIP code. In other words: Is the seller hoping for a celebrity markup, and how much?

What we discovered is that the market value of celebrity housing stock seems to vary as widely as the talent and achievements of the stars themselves. Sadly, some leading lights of the past have seen their glory fade faster than others.

So come with us on a tour across the country to see the homes where VIPs were raised. No map of the stars’ homes required!

Here are some childhood homes of celebrities, ranked from lowest added star value to highest:

7. George Hamilton

Childhood home: Blytheville, AR
Last listed price: $159,900
Comparable median listing price: $180,000
Celebrity premium: -11%

Apparently, being best known as Hollywood’s leading Keeper of the Perpetual Tan doesn’t translate into a big premium in the Arkansas real estate market. George Hamilton—the 76-year-old former leading man who played Dracula and Zorro and is currently featured as “Extra Crispy Colonel” Sanders in KFC TV commercials—was born in Memphis, TN, but grew up in this home, which was built in 1903.

The property has been on and off the market for almost four years and is now listed for 11% less than comparable homes.

You don’t get many celebrities coming out of Blytheville, so Hamilton is mentioned prominently in the listing, which also notes original hardwood floors and three fireplaces. But while the property has a lower asking price than other four-bedroom homes in the neighborhood, it was still higher than the median $90,000 home price in the ZIP code. (This explains why the price tag has been steadily slashed since 2012, when it was listed for $227,500.)

Hamilton left Blytheville many decades ago, but he clearly feels a strong connection to the Arkansas community where he grew up.

“It’s where I will be buried, and it’s where I come from,” Hamilton said in 2008. “I buried my mother there, my brother there, my grandfather, my grandmother—it’s the very earth where I’m going to be.”

6. Renée Zellweger

Childhood home: Katy, TX
Last listed price: $317,499
Comparable median price: $280,000
Celebrity premium: 13%

It’s easy to imagine Renée Zellweger bouncing out of this suburban Lone Star State home, on her way to soccer, basketball, or cheerleading practice, or maybe a meeting of the drama club or debate team. She was nothing if not well-rounded. In high school, she was on the Homecoming Court and was voted “Dream Date” in 1987 by her fellow students, according to Us Weekly.

Built in 1977, this four-bedroom, two-bathroom 2,553-square-foot home just sold for between $285,001 and $325,000, according to the latest information available. That’s about $125 per square foot—roughly 13% more than the typical home in this smallish town outside Houston.

While Zellweger has owned other houses in Texas and Connecticut, she currently resides in Montecito, near Santa Barbara, CA, where she hopes to reclaim her place on the A-list with the September opening of “Bridget Jones’s Baby.”

5. Marlon Brando

Childhood home: Omaha, NE
Last listed price: $260,000
Comparable median price: $183,000
Celebrity premium: 42%

The owners of the five-bedroom, four-bathroom frame home where Marlon Brando grew up were clearly hoping for a “Godfather”-size premium when they listed it, although it has since been taken off the market.

Brando lived in the Omaha, NE, house with his father, a pesticide and chemical feed manufacturer, mother, and two older sisters before going on to become the most acclaimed film actor of his generation.

After he won an Oscar in 1973 (which he refused to accept because of the poor treatment of Native Americans in the film industry), Brando returned to his childhood home and shocked the new owners by asking for a tour, according to The Omaha World-Herald. He reminisced about a treehouse in his old backyard.

The home was listed at more than double the price of other properties, of all sizes, in the neighborhood—$260,000 compared with $120,000. Public records show that the 4,119-square-foot home was built in 1900. But it appears to have been charmingly updated, and even includes a pool. No word about a treehouse, though.

4. Angelina Jolie

Childhood home: Palisades, NY
Last listed price: $1,895,000
Comparable median price: $1,110,000
Celebrity premium: 71%

Angelina Jolie was born in Los Angeles, but by the time she was 6, her mother, actress Marcheline Bertrand, and father, actor Jon Voight, had split, and Bertrand moved the family to Palisades, NY. There they inhabited an elegant and contemporary home known as the Whitney House, which was built in 1958 for a descendent of the Whitney American Art Museum family.

The 4,088-square-foot Whitney House, sitting on a 2-acre lot, has been on the market for almost a year. And despite its nearly $2 million price tag, it isn’t the only expensive home in the neighborhood: The ZIP code’s median listing price is $1,300,000.

Jolie and her third husband, Brad Pitt, rent or own several compounds in the Los Angeles area, as well as mansions in New Orleans, France, and England. It will be interesting to see whether Brangelina‘s star power adds a premium to those residences as well.

3. Janis Joplin

Childhood home: Port Arthur, TX
Last listed price: $500,000
Comparable median price: $283,000
Celebrity premium: 77%

Janis Joplin famously was not a fan of the conservative, small town of Port Arthur, TX, where she grew up in the ’40s and ’50s. But that isn’t stopping the current owners of the five-bedroom home from asking $500,000 for the 1,450-square-foot house—despite a tax assessment of just $52,000. It’s astronomical given that median-price homes (which may not have nearly as many bedrooms) in the same neighborhood are going for just $144,000.

One selling point for fans of the singer, who died when she was just 27: New owners can show off where she carved her first name into the floor of the garage.

We’re guessing the owners were inspired by the December sale of Joplin’s kaleidoscopic-painted Porsche, which was auctioned off in New York City. The vehicle was expected to go for $400,000 to $600,000, but when the gavel finally came down, the bid had skyrocketed to $1.76 million.

“Oh Lord, won’t cha buy me a celebrity home…”

2. Kurt Cobain

Childhood home: Aberdeen, WA
Last listed price: $329,000
Comparable median price: $169,900
Celebrity premium: 94%

Kurt Cobain’s mother, Wendy O’Connor, apparently hopes that fame will multiply the value of the home where the Nirvana frontman spent most of his childhood years. O’Connor listed the humble home in Aberdeen, WA, for $329,000—nearly double the price of what similar homes are selling for in the neighborhood. And that’s heavily discounted from fall 2013, when it was listed at $500,000. It is now off the market.

O’Connor isn’t living there now, but those who have seen it suspect that she is intentionally keeping it in the same condition as when the ’90s grunge superstar left, with flowered wallpaper, shag carpeting, linoleum floors, and yellow Formica kitchen counters all intact.

Cobain fans can also see their icon’s artwork drawn on the walls of his old bedroom. And they won’t want to miss the hole he punched in the bedroom wall—perhaps after his parents divorced.

If it doesn’t eventually get bought up, it could become a tribute museum—thousands visit the nearby Kurt Cobain Memorial Park annually.

1. Kurt Vonnegut

Childhood home: Indianapolis, IN
Last listed price: $674,900
Comparable median price: $305,000
Celebrity premium: 121%

The fact that the genius author of “Slaughterhouse-Five” likely penned his first essays within the walls of this stately Indianapolis-area home might justify this premium price for book-loving buyers. Kurt Vonnegut’s childhood home was originally listed at $899,000 in summer 2014, but the price was dropped several times before it was taken off the market. The median price of all homes on the market in the same ZIP code is just $61,500.

The 5,907-square-foot, four-bedroom, five-bathroom brick residence was designed by the author’s father, Kurt Vonnegut Sr., a prominent local architect, according to The Indianapolis Star. The “Breakfast of Champions” writer moved in with his parents and two siblings in 1923, a year after he was born. But the family was hit hard by the Depression and in 1930 were forced to move into a smaller home.

Who knows? There might be considerable value in the literary inspiration lingering within these walls.

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