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In one of the most famous scenes in the TV drama “Breaking Bad,” Walter White storms away from his Albuquerque house after a bit of marital discord and hurls a large pepperoni pizza in frustration – only for the pie to land on the pitched roof.
That scene inspired memes and remained a fun onset memory for the actual homeowners, the Padilla family, who enjoyed a pizza party that day thanks to the crew’s leftovers after actor Bryan Cranston nailed the shot on his first try. But the joke ultimately wore off for them; fans visited their house in the following years to re-create the scene by throwing pizzas on the property.
Now, the Padillas are selling the house that comes with a fenced backyard and the pool that was featured in dozens of scenes, including infamous flash-forwards of a floating, charred pink teddy bear that symbolized the consequences of White’s methamphetamine empire. While Albuquerque real estate experts said the house’s market value is around $350,000, the Padillas listed the property for nearly $4 million, hoping its connection to one of the most popular TV series significantly raises its value.
The real estate agents created a website for the house that advertises directly to “Breaking Bad” fans and calls the property “a symbol of cinematic storytelling.”
“We recognized clearly that the pop culture significance of it was going to afford a price tag that was not going to be in relationship to what a normal home in that particular neighbourhood might go for,” one of those real estate agents, David Christensen, told The Washington Post.
When selecting the listing price, Christensen said he studied how homes from movies and other TV shows fared on the market. The house from “The Brady Bunch” in Studio City, California, sold for $3.2 million in 2023, and a superfan closed on the home from “The Goonies” in Astoria, Oregon, for $1.6 million the same year. The “Home Alone” house in Winnetka, Illinois, went on the market for $5.25 million in May, and the seller has accepted an offer that’s pending, according to Redfin.
Christensen said a buyer could see a return on their investment by turning the “Breaking Bad” house into an Airbnb or a fan experience – like a museum.
But Alicia Feil, an Albuquerque-based real estate agent, said she doubted the house would sell for anywhere near the listing price. In 2015, she placed Jesse Pinkman’s house from “Breaking Bad” – a larger house than White’s that was also a cornerstone of the series – on sale for $1.6 million, about double its typical market value. The house didn’t sell because nobody wanted to spend more money just to own a home associated with the TV series, Feil said.
A property’s connection to “Breaking Bad” could even lower its market value, she said, because the buyer would need to be prepared for visiting fans.
“It ends up being more of a nuisance to own those homes than an excitement,” Feil said.
Louis and Frances Padilla bought the 1,910-square-foot, four-bedroom, two-bathroom house in 1973 – the year after it was built. Their daughter, Joanne Padilla, said that she and her two younger brothers swam in the pool all day on the weekends and that her parents organized summer barbecues on the back patio.
Near the end of 2006, Frances answered a knock on the door to find location scouts from Sony Pictures Entertainment on her doorstep, Joanne said. One handed her a business card and explained they were looking for a house to shoot a TV pilot. Frances didn’t believe them at first, but a few days later, she accepted, Joanne said.
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“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” said Joanne, 63.
“Breaking Bad” creator Vince Gilligan wanted to film a house that had roads shaped like a “T” in front, Joanne said. Location scouts didn’t think White, a struggling high school chemistry teacher, owning a pool was realistic, but Gilligan wrote it into the pilot’s script, Joanne said.
At the start of 2007, trucks filled with equipment and a production crew – including wardrobe designers, lighting and sound crews, writers and security officers – arrived to begin filming outside the house. AMC ultimately ordered an entire first season, so the crew returned to the Padilla’s house a few months later. The show premiered in 2008.
Only the exterior of the Padilla’s home was filmed; the interior of White’s house was shot at an Albuquerque studio. The crew packed the Padilla’s home with cameras, lighting and sound equipment, clothes for the actors, and director’s chairs. They turned a bedroom into a changing room.
Frances and Louis pushed their furniture to the walls when the crew was shooting, but they never moved out, Joanne said. Instead, Frances baked Nanaimo bar cookies and made lemon and lime water for the crew.
“They made us feel like family,” Joanne said. “And we made them feel like family.”
The production crew paid the Padilla family to use their home, Joanne said, but the family never received residuals. The family declined to disclose how much they were paid, citing confidentiality agreements Louis and Frances signed.
Cranston, who played White, won his first of several Emmys for outstanding lead actor in a drama series for the pilot episode, during which White learns he has terminal lung cancer and sets out to cook meth with Pinkman in a recreational vehicle in the desert. Joanne said Cranston offered to give the award to Louis and Frances, who declined.
The Padillas also witnessed the behind-the-scenes work that goes into a TV series.
Once, after a snowstorm struck Albuquerque, the production crew made the neighborhood appear like it was spring to match the show’s timeline. Crew members shoveled snow off the sidewalk, placed about 2,000 leaves on the tree in front of the Padilla’s house and inserted fake roses into their neighbor’s rosebush, Joanne said.
Since the show began airing, thousands of people have visited the Padilla’s house to take pictures. At first, Joanne said meeting fans from across the world was fun for her parents. Some gave them postcards, magnets and trinkets from their homes, and Frances noted all of the visitors in journals. But the visits ultimately became problematic.
Some people stole rocks from the front yard, Joanne said, and a package addressed to White was delivered to the house in the middle of the night around 2017. Fearing it was a weapon, Joanne’s family called local authorities.
Now, a roughly 6-foot-tall fence stands in front of the driveway, and a camera sits above the garage. A sign on the front yard says “Do Not Disturb.”
After Frances and Louis died in May 2020 and August 2024, respectively, Joanne and her brothers decided the house was no longer special to them – but they hoped it could be to the show’s fans.
Regardless of what’s in store for the house, Joanne said, she will always view it as more than a pop culture icon.
“When I look at my house, I see my family home,” Joanne said. “I don’t see ‘Breaking Bad.’ I see my memories.”