If you’re a massive fan of the hit AMC original series Breaking Bad, or its criminally underrated spinoff series Better Call Saul, you may have an acute interest in visiting the prime filming locations throughout Albuquerque, New Mexico. If that applies to you, and you’re also in the market for a new home, you’ll be overjoyed to learn that Walter White’s house is currently up for sale. The residence, which is specified as being located at 308 Negra Arroyo Lane within the crime drama, is actually a four-bed two-bath single story located in the Northeast Heights area, at 3828 Piermont Drive Northeast. Fans of the show will recall fond memories over the course of Breaking Bad‘s five-season run which include the White family bonding over breakfast, cooking out by the pool and occasionally getting into near-lethal encounters with armed gang members and cartel hitmen.
Luckily, none of those things will be a problem for prospective buyers, as the iconic address now has an imposing front gate. Since the home is already so famous among television aficionados, it only makes sense for us to explore the listing and briefly run through everything that makes the house special, save for the presence of an unassuming man with a .38 snub nose revolver in the waist of his tan khakis.
How Much Is the Home Listing For?
The current homeowner, one Joanne Padilla, is listing the Breaking Bad house for an asking price of $3.995 million. While this may seem quite steep for a humble home of this size, Padilla recognizes the inherent value in the house as a cultural landmark, thanks to the countless hours audiences have spent watching the television drama unfold on her very doorstep. The median price for similar homes in the area is a humble $350,000, meaning the former White residence will likely wind up selling to a wealthy Breaking Bad super-fan. Padilla reflected on her decision to offload the home in a recent interview with The New York Times, stating, “It’s no longer the family vibe that we’ve always had growing up in the house. It’s an icon, so whoever wants it can just say they own an iconic home now, but to us, it has no meaning anymore.”
The homeowner originally grew up inside the Piermont Drive residence after her parents purchased the property in 1973. In the years since, the couple have grown old, passed away and left the estate to Joanne, who is 63 at the time of this writing. A location scout for Breaking Bad initially knocked on the door of the Padilla residence back in 2006, seeking the couples’ permission to use the exterior of the house for a television pilot. At that time, nobody had any way of knowing what a massive cultural landmark Breaking Bad would become. Series creator Vince Gilligan simply chose the house because it fit with the overall lifestyle of his mild-mannered protagonist, who would set out on a journey over the course of the show to go “from Mr. Chips to Scarface,” as Gilligan famously quipped.
What Can the New Owners Expect?
“The likelihood of a lovely family of four buying the home [is] really not statistically possible,” according to a rep from eXp Realty Luxury. Instead, the listing is focused on attracting clients who see “the bigger value in terms of how to give something that the fans would like and might bring some additional value to the neighborhood.” For a house with this level of infamy, brokers seem to think that means selling the home to somebody that will convert it into a full-on tourist stop, or even rent out the interior as an Airbnb listing.
This would certainly be a refreshing change of pace for Breaking Bad fans, as the Padilla family were famously opposed to seeing frequent visits from fans of the show. At the height of the AMC drama’s popularity, hundreds to thousands would make the pilgrimage to the meth manufacturers domicile. While most visitors have been polite, others have intruded upon the owners by knocking on their door, attempting to recreate scenes from the front walkway or even throwing a pizza onto the Piermont Drive house’s roof. The latter is in reference to a culinary catapulting maneuver made by Walter White in frustration, after his wife Skyler refused to split a pie with him in the season three episode “Caballo sin Nombre.”
Evidently, the Padilla’s suffered so many pizzas to their roof after the series concluded, that in 2017 they elected to have an imposing fence and traffic cones placed in front of their home, barring entry to any overzealous fans who fail to realize that actual people are living inside.
How Was the Home Utilized in ‘Breaking Bad’?
Both the front and rear exteriors of the Piermont Drive house were used in the production of Breaking Bad from the 2008 pilot through to the 2013 finale. The residence’s in-ground swimming pool served as a significant shooting location, as the White family would frequently gather around the pool to cookout or celebrate birthdays. Key scenes along the poolside include an instance of Walter setting his ill-begotten cash on fire out of mindless guilt, an attempt by Skyler White to drown herself in season five and a pivotal scene in which Walter devises a scheme to poison a child in order to maintain control over his protégé, Jesse Pinkman. The last time that we see the property within the series, the pool has been drained and is being used by ne’er-do-well skateboarders to practice their skills while skipping school. The inside is condemned and left to ruins, as the police have closed in on Heisenberg’s multi-million dollar drug empire.
While the exterior facades of the house are iconic, the interiors will be largely unfamiliar to Breaking Bad fans. Interior shots for the White house were completed on a soundstage in downtown Albuquerque, in the aptly titled ABQ Studios lot. If a venture capitalist or Breaking Bad super-fan does intend to turn the home into a living, breathing art exhibit, they’ll certainly have their work cut out for them, as the inside will require extensive renovations to resemble the TV accurate layout. Of course, those looking to adjust the house can do without a few key details, like the wood rot-infested floorboards under the hot water heater and the crawlspace which contained millions of dollars in unwashed cash.
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