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The house from 'A Nightmare on Elm Street' just sold for nearly $3 million

A Los Angeles home featured in Wes Craven's 1984 horror classic <em>A Nightmare on Elm Street</em> has sold for almost $3 million.
Anthony Barcelo
A Los Angeles home featured in Wes Craven's 1984 horror classic A Nightmare on Elm Street has sold for almost $3 million.

The house that anchored the 1984 horror classic A Nightmare on Elm Street has been sold after nearly three months on the market, going for $2,980,000.

Despite its nightmarish movie ties, the house can be seen as a dream home, with 3 bedrooms and 4.5 bathrooms, along with a pool and a guest house.

It's "a beautiful Dutch Colonial with a modern twist," according to the listing on Realtor.com. The house sits just off of Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, a few blocks east of the legendary Chateau Marmont hotel. A Whole Foods is also nearby.

The house, located at 1428 N. Genesee Ave., went up for sale last October, a week before Halloween. Its initial asking price was listed as $3.5 million.

While director Wes Craven set his film in the small (and nonexistent) town of Springwood, Ohio, he filmed the exterior shots in Hollywood, in the neighborhood of Spaulding Square. The Los Angeles Times notes that the area's lack of palm trees and quaint vibe have long made it a favorite for directors shooting movies and TV shows set in small-town USA.

Of course, even Freddy Krueger might be frightened by today's hyper-competitive housing market: In 2021, home prices shot up by 19%.

As NPR's Tien Le reported last fall:

"The iconic house isn't just a place of horror. It's also the location of Bo Burnham: Inside, a solo musical comedy special shot and produced during the height of the pandemic, and a possible Grammy contender."


A version of this story originally appeared in the Morning Edition live blog.

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Bill Chappell is a writer and editor on the News Desk in the heart of NPR's newsroom in Washington, D.C.