More than 100 million people are expected to tune in to the Super Bowl on Sunday, when the Philadelphia Eagles will take on the Kansas City Chiefs. Only a lucky 76,000 or so will actually be in the stadium. Tickets for the game at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans are so expensive that your mortgage probably costs less, according to a report from Zillow.
Researchers compared the typical monthly mortgage payments in the nation’s 50 largest metropolitan areas against the cheapest nosebleed seat they could find on the resale market as of Jan. 22: $4,800 on StubHub. To find the monthly mortgage payment in each metro, typical home values were drawn from Zillow’s Home Value Index, assuming a 20 percent down payment and a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage at 6.715 percent, the national average in December 2024, according to a survey by Freddie Mac. (Insurance and taxes were not included.)
Between the home cities of the two teams, the typical monthly mortgage payment was lower in Kansas City, Mo., at $1,544. That means a hometown Chiefs fan hoping to cheer on Patrick Mahomes (or maybe catch a glimpse of Taylor Swift) in person would have to pay more than three times their monthly mortgage for one ticket. In Philadelphia, the typical mortgage payment was $1,871, making a $4,800 ticket equivalent to 2.6 house payments.
If Pennsylvania’s other football team, the Pittsburgh Steelers, were vying for the Lombardi Trophy this year, its local fans would experience even more sticker shock. With a typical monthly mortgage payment of $1,075 (the lowest among the 50 metros), a Pittsburgh homeowner would have to shell out the equivalent of around four-and-a-half mortgage payments.
Among all 50 metros, only four had monthly mortgage amounts higher than the price of a $4,800 ticket, and all of them were in California, according to Zillow. In San Jose, it was $8,205, nearly twice the cost of a ticket. San Francisco ($5,858) was next, followed by Los Angeles ($4,911) and San Diego ($4,835).
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