It’s been nine long years since we last saw our favorite San Diego news team. I’m not referring to the staff at KFMB, NBC7, or even 10News. I mean the real stars—the originals: Veronica Corningstone, Brian Fantana, Brick Tamland, Champ Kind, and, of course, Ron Burgundy himself.
After nearly a decade, tomorrow they’ll be back in our lives and our living rooms (or at least movie theaters), in “Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues.”
In honor of this monumental movie moment, the Movoto Real Estate team has decided to celebrate in our own unique way. Yes, we’re drinking some scotch and having a good old fashion pants party. But first, we are evaluating the value of none other than Papa Burgundy’s groovy apartment.
Turns out this 1970’s pad would be worth about $463,000 in today’s market.
So grab a glass of scotch or a gallon of milk (though I warn you, it’s a bad choice), and read on to discover just how we came up with this price.
How Did I Do It?
Just like the Channel 4 News Team, who tirelessly research (drink) the big stories (Cat Fashion Shows), I worked hard to uncover the price of Ron Burgundy’s San Diego home (Googled). But in order to come up with this final report, I needed a few leads.
- The location
- The size
- Comparable properties
Finding the location and comparable properties was easier than Brick remembering his own name; but when it came to finding the size, well, it was no trip to Pleasure Town.
Oh, We’re Going There
The first step in finding the value of Ron’s home was figuring out just where it was. Now, we all know that the movie took place in the great city of San Diego—discovered by the Germans in 1904, which of course in German means… Well, you know the rest. But figuring out where in the city Ron lived required a bit of digging.
First, I needed to know which neighborhoods in San Diego were “kind of a big deal” in the mid-1970s, so I talked to some folks who would know– namely, a bunch of people my parents’ age. They all said the same thing: Mission Beach and La Jolla were the places to be in the 1970s. Now, much as it does today, Mission Beach attracts a certain demographic—namely hippies, surfers, and young combinations of the two. Ron Burgundy, who has many leather-bound books and whose apartment smells of rich mahogany, certainly does not fit into this demographic. Which left La Jolla, “The Jewel of San Diego.” The old San Diego-ites (San Diego-ins? San Diego-uns? San Dieg-ons?) agreed: this would have been the place for Papa Burgundy’s pad.
With that, I needed to make sure that Ron’s ‘70s apartment wouldn’t be out of place in the area by looking at some of the real estate built during that time. As it turns out, our favorite anchor would have felt right at home in La Jolla—probably would even today.
So now we know where Ron would have hung his pleated pants and called home, but just how big is it?
Don’t Act Like You’re Not Impressed
In order to figure out the size of Ron’s apartment, I needed to do some deductive reasoning, which studies show, 60 percent of the time, works every time. The first film only shows us a glimpse of Ron’s home. We see the outside, in which the building looks to be several units stacked next to and on top of one another. We also see his living room which opens up to the kitchen and dining area.
I decided to use the fireplace in the room as my unit of measurement. A standard fireplace is 36 inches wide, making the total square feet of the room approximately 450.
We also see his bedroom in a few scenes. The room is pretty sparsely decorated from what I could tell–there is a round, silk sheets-covered bed and what seems to be another fireplace along one wall (though we only see the corner of this). Judging by the size of the bed (which looks to be the size of a Queen, when Ron and Ms. Corningstone are both… in it), and the space left around the bed, the master must be about 250 square feet.
With Ron being your typical bachelor of the 70s, I assume that his place is a one-bedroom, and since there is nothing to suggest otherwise, that’s what we’re going with. Including the 250 square foot bedroom and the 450 square foot living room/dining/kitchen area, it is safe to assume that Ron’s La Jolla apartment is roughly 1,000 square feet total—about the standard size for a bachelor pad.
It’s science.
Living Like It’s 1975
The final thing I needed to find the price of Ron’s pad were some comparable properties—namely, apartments in multi-unit buildings in Jolla built before the mid-70s, when the movie took place. As it turns out, this was pretty easy. There were at least 50 for sale.
So I narrowed my search down a bit, to those La Jolla properties built before the mid-70s, which included fireplaces and a small outdoor area. Averaging the price per square foot for 12 condos and apartments like this, I found the average to be $463 per square foot– the equivalent of $106.66 in the mid-’70s.
Adding It All Up
1001, 1002, 1003… I don’t know if you heard me counting. I did over a thousand.
Speaking of counting, to find the final price of Ron’s apartment, I took the approximate square feet (1,000), and multiplied it by $463, to get the home’s price of $463,000. To put that into a different perspective for you, I’ve taken inflation into account and calculated the amount Mr. Burgundy probably paid in the mid-’70s: $106,657.
Don’t act like you’re not impressed.