Have you ever watched Legend of Korra and thought, “wow, Tenzin has a pretty sweet pad”? Well you’re in luck! The brainiacs over at Movoto crunched the numbers and found out just how much it would cost. It’s not really as big as you’d think it would be, but still pretty cool. Check out the infographic and detailed breakdown below.
Long ago, the four nations lived in harmony… then Nickelodeon made a boatload of money, won a whole bunch of awards, and “Avatar: The Last Airbender” became one of the most popular kids shows of all time. Years passed, and viewers discovered a new Avatar, a waterbender named Korra.
“The Legend of Korra” has been a wild and wonderful ride. Emotions galore, adult messages, beautiful animation, and villains I certainly know I’ll remember. Sadly, all great things come to an end, and on December 19, the ride will be over.
So, of course, when I got the chance to immortalize the show here on the Movoto Real Estate Blog by valuing one of the houses in it, I was on that like Aang on an airscooter.
There was a lot of research to do, but I didn’t have to spend my vacation at the library to get the data I needed. In the end, I found that Tenzin’s house on Air Temple Island, outside of Republic City, would cost $862,633 to buy. And that’s not even accounting for where you’re going to keep your Sky Bison.
How did I get this pricey number? First, we had to dive into the world of “Korra” and discover what sort of home we were looking at.
What I Needed To Know
In order to get the price of this lovely and utilitarian abode, there were a few things I needed to research first. The things I needed to find were:
•How big is this house?
•Where is it located?
•How much do similarly sized houses cost there?
Some of that was bound to be a little more difficult to find, and I didn’t have Team Avatar at my side to help me. Still, I knew where to start, and that was to figure out how big the house was, and that meant I needed to find out more about this place that Tenzin and family call home.
Besides, I’m certainly never going to complain about having to repeatedly watch cartoons.
A Home Fit For An Avatar
Believe it or not, Air Temple Island was temple-less until Avatar Aang decided to build one himself, to give his son and future airbender generations a stronger link to their culture.
The temple itself is massive, as are the training grounds, some of which still use relics from when the airbenders were a more-thriving people. There are dormitories, a greenhouse (for all your vegetarian needs), and even a small port. But separate from all that is Tenzin’s home, where he and his family live.
What’s particularly interesting, and took me several rewatches to realize, is that this house itself is rarely acknowledged. However, scenes of a small dining room, kitchen, and bedroom all indicate that the home is for a single family, Tenzin’s. What’s more, is that it’s the only single-family home on the island, so it is very likely this is where Aang lived when he was still alive.
I will note, however, that Korra stays elsewhere, in the female dormitory.
The home itself, as we see it, consists of:
•A dining room
•A main hall
•A kitchen
•An office
•A kids’ room
•A main bedroom
•Tenzin’s private study
We only see a glimpse of some of these rooms, especially where the kid’s sleep, mostly because it seems Meelo still sleeps with mom and dad sometimes.
Do You Think Appa Could Have Fit?
Finding this house’s size also took a little research, and several more rewatches. Thanks to some deliciously nerdy Tumblr users, I was able to find height charts for many characters that I could use as reference points when measuring rooms.
The characters I ended up using were:
•Ikki – 42 inches tall
•Korra – 67 inches tall
•Jinora – 52 inches tall
•Tenzin – 84 inches tall
•Asami – 70 inches tall
Once I knew that, I just had to search for specific scenes and measure each place based on the heights of people in the room at the time. For all of these, I rounded up to the nearest square foot.
Mind you, the kids do grow over the seasons, so these are all season one measurements.
•The dining room was 2.3 Korras by 3.2 Korras (227 square feet)
•The main hall was 2 Tenzins by 3 Tenzins (294 square feet)
•The kitchen was 2 Asamis by 3 Asamis (201 square feet)
•The office was 1.5 Tenzins by 2 Tenzins (147 square feet)
•The kids’ room was 4 Ikkis by 4 Ikkis (196 square feet)
•The main bedroom was 3 Jinoras by 4.2 Jinoras (237 square feet)
•Tenzin’s private study was 4 Ikkis by 6 Ikkis (294 square feet)
All these numbers came out to Tenzin’s lovely island home being 1,596 square feet in size. Of course, the many porches, the meditation plaza, the covered walkways, and probable bathrooms were not included in this analysis, but are still pretty cool.
Finding Republic City
When trying to look for the real-world location of Republic City, I focused my attention on which places the show creators were inspired by. As it turns out, they had quite a few inspirations.
The layout, style, vibe, and people of Republic City were based on Shanghai circa 1920s, Hong Kong, and Western cities such as New York, Chicago, and Vancouver.
Now, as an American, I can definitely see the New York comparison, right down to the big statue on a tiny island off the coast. But in this wonderful world of Avatars and element bending, it would seem somehow weird to set this place in North America.
It has a much more Eastern look and feel, plus the Yuan is the currency of both Republic City and China. Because of that, I looked at Shanghai, which has a similar shape as well as several coastal islands that might be suited for Airbenders and their families.
There were only a few of these islands that were inhabited, however, which really narrowed down my search. In the end, I picked the smallest of the islands, which was less than 22 square miles in size. That island was Hengsha Island.
Even some of the house styles, the more upscale ones anyway, looked a little like Tenzin’s home.
The Price Of Enlightened Living
Believe it or not, finding the cost of this place was the hardest part. You see, real estate on this little tourist destination is hard to find, to say the least, and digging through real estate companies that post everything in Chinese was a little taxing.
But like Korra when Amon was stealing everyone’s bending, I persevered.
After translating a few sites and following some links, I found that a 2,691 square foot house in the Chongming District, which includes Hengsha Island, tends to sell for around 9,000,000 yuan. By using that to find the price per square foot (3,344 yuan or $540), I was able to determine that Tenzin’s house would sell for roughly 5,337,024 yuan.
That came out to $862,633 in U.S. dollars. Hmmm… I wonder if they’d accept watertribe money?
Only The Avatar Can Bring Balance To The Housing Market
You’d pretty much have to have the wealth of the Beifongs and the diplomacy skills of an Airbender to call this place home. It’s also worth mentioning that unless you own a boat, only Airbenders are going to be able to easily get on and off the island, given their gliders.
Luckily for the world, Airbenders are on the rise again…though I’m not sure how much faith in the Air Nation you want to rest in Bumi’s hands.
So as we say farewell to The Legend Of Korra, it’s hard not to be wistful. Hopefully the series goes out with a bang, and we can look back at the characters of the show, and their homes, and feel the same adoration and nostalgia we feel for Katara, Aang, Sokka, and Toph.
Well, I love old Toph too, so either way, I’m all set.
