It is well known that Monopoly, a popular board game by Parker Brothers, is based on Atlantic City streets. When the game — as we now know it — was distributed in the 1930s, property values on the game corresponded with the affluence of that area of the city. But is a place on Boardwalk still more expensive than a home on Vermont Avenue? From the cheapest to the most expensive properties in the game, see how today’s real estate prices compare if you’re looking to start buying up your own monopoly. Check out the properties below, as listed on trulia.com. (Image shown is a wooden Monopoly game board and property cards, circa 1935, from the Atlantic City Heritage Collections at the Atlantic City Free Public Library)
1215 Mediterranean Ave. – Rent: $2. Today’s price: $35,000
Now you can buy a 3-bedroom, 1-bath home here at 1215 Mediterranean Ave. for $35,000, but you’ll have to do a little rehabbing yourself. In the 1930s, Mediterranean Avenue was largely “a commercial, light-industrial stretch that featured the likes of Abbotts Dairies and Wrigley’s Chewing Gum,” according to the book “Monopoly: The Story Behind the World’s Best-Selling Game,” by Rod Kennedy Jr. and Jim Waltzer, in association with the Atlantic City Historical Museum.
608 Baltic Ave. – Rent: $4. Today’s price: $80,000
Today it’ll cost you $80,000 for a 3 -bedroom, 2-1/2 bath brick condo with a 2-car garage only a few blocks from Absecon Inlet. Revolutionary War veteran Jeremiah Leeds built the first house on the island on the road that became Baltic Avenue.
You’ll have to fork out $600,000 for a 50×80 foot lot of land with “unbeatable” views of the Atlantic Ocean and next to a new Boardwalk which is currently under construction. “Oriental Avenue boasted apartments, boarding houses, kosher delis and, during World War II, a Boardwalk coastguard tower that kept an eye peeled for enemy subs,” according to the book “Monopoly: The Story Behind the World’s Best-Selling Game.”
131 N. Vermont Ave. – Rent: $6. Today’s price: $69,900
Now, a 3-bedroom, 1-1/2 bath home — a block away from two different parks — will cost you less than $70,000.