Lawyerly Lairs: The Obamas' Post-Presidency, $6 Million Mansion
The Obamas are staying in Washington -- and renting this nine-bedroom, 8,200-square-foot mansion.
It’s not the White House, but it’ll do.
Real estate obsessives, this is your lucky week. We’re bringing you back-to-back Lawyerly Lairs stories. And today’s property is far more fabulous than the modest one-bedroom in the East Village that we covered yesterday.
For any die-hard Republicans who were hoping to never see the Obamas in Washington again, we have some bad news. President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama plan to stick around D.C. after his presidency, at least until their youngest daughter Sasha completes high school in 2018. And they’ll be doing it in high style, as reported by Politico:
[The Obamas] will lease the 8,200-square-foot mansion owned by Joe Lockhart and Giovanna Gray after the first family leaves the White House in January, sources told POLITICO Playbook on Wednesday.
Lockhart and his family have moved to Manhattan after he accepted a job in February with the NFL as its executive vice president of communications, while Gray handles special projects for Glamour magazine. According to real-estate data, the home was built in 1928 and features nine bedrooms and eight-and-a-half baths.
Situated on about a quarter acre in the tony D.C. neighborhood of Kalorama, it was last sold in May 2014 for $5,295,000, according to data on Zillow, which also notes that the property has a two-car garage and a gated courtyard for eight to 10 vehicles.
Ample parking is good for entertaining — and a Secret Service detail, too.
According to the New York Times, the house’s current value is around $6 million. Part of that price tag reflects location, location, location:
The move will put the Obamas in one of Washington’s wealthiest ZIP codes, in a secluded precinct backing up to Rock Creek Park that is home to diplomats and a focal point of the capital’s cocktail-party circuit. The home itself is luxurious; photographs posted by Washington Fine Properties, which listed it when it sold in 2014, show spacious rooms with hardwood floors, white marble countertops, his-and-her master bathrooms and a terrace with formal gardens.
A sign that you’ve moved into a good neighborhood: your next-door neighbor is a law firm partner. K&L Gates partner Bart Gordon told the Times, “He’ll be welcomed to the neighborhood; I just hope he doesn’t get too rowdy.”
The Obamas’ future home sounds quite lavish. Let’s look at some photos, shall we?
