After the Golden State Warriors take the 3-2 lead against the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 5, the NBA Finals is getting hotter and more contested. However, compared to their head-to-head battle in the hard court, the match in terms of real estate has already been decided as the Cavs win by a landslide.
According to a Zillow analysis of the teams' payrolls and the price of homes in Cleveland and Oakland, the total 2014-2015 salary of all of the Cavs' players could buy 60 percent of the homes available in the city. Meanwhile, if the salaries of the Warriors team up, they could only buy 25 percent of the homes available in Oakland.
The Cleveland team was reported to have made almost $82.6 million this season, while the Golden State team's payroll was more modest with $73.6 million. The gap between the two grew bigger considering the cost of the houses.
"The median home in the city of Cleveland was valued at $52,200 in April," Zillow reported. "In Oakland, right in the middle of the incredibly hot San Francisco Bay Area housing market, the median home value in April was roughly 10 times higher than in Cleveland, at $526,800."
When we zoom in on the two stars of the clashing NBA teams- the Warriors' Stephen Curry, 2015 NBA MVP, and the Cavs' LeBron James, four-time NBA MVP-we will see that their real estate purchasing power has a huge difference.
With a whopping $20.6 million salary, the Cavs' Lebron could buy roughly around 15 percent of homes for sale, while Curry's lower estimated salary of $10.6 million equates to being able to buy only 4 percent of the homes available in Oakland.
In the overall ranking of all the NBA teams (except the Toronto Raptors), the Detroit Pistons have the largest purchasing power. They can buy 67 percent of all homes in their home city.