On paper, it sounds like a property to die for: 132 rooms, including 16 bedrooms and 35 bathrooms, with 28 fireplaces, a tennis court, a bowling alley and an attached garage spread out over 55,000 square feet on 18 acres of centrally located land.
But the White House, as enviable a property as it is, hasn’t been immune from the nation’s housing crisis.
As syndicated columnist Lew Sichelman first noticed, the property value of the White House has lost nearly a quarter of its value over the last three years, according to the real estate site Zillow. In fact, in the last month alone, the White House’s estimated property worth has dropped nearly $5.5 million.
At the height of the 2007 housing boom, the White House was valued at roughly $332 million. In January 2009, when President Obama and his family moved in, the fair market value was listed as $292 million. Now Zillow says the property is worth just $252 million — even with all the redecorating the Obamas have done since moving in.
That’s still an impressive net worth, considering the property was reportedly built at a cost of just over $232 000 (roughly $3 million in 2011 numbers). One reason it was so cheap: The construction crews were made up largely of slaves. (Yahoo! News)
