It Ain’t Worth What it Used To Be

By Melissa Dittmann Tracey, REALTOR® Magazine

So what’s the going rate for a 132-room, 55,000-square foot mansion with 18 acres, 16 family-guest rooms, three kitchens, three elevators, 28 fireplaces, and an underground bunker? Oh, and we forgot to mention: The president happens to live there too.

Apparently the White House can’t seem to escape the sagging housing market either. In the last year, the posh 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. address dropped in value by 5.1 percent—from $308 million to $292.5 million, according to a recent post on Zillow’s blog.

That is a slight improvement over 2008, however. In 2008, the White House dropped in value by 7.2 percent.

Overall, homes across the country have decreased in value by about 5 percent the past year, according to Zillow. So sellers shouldn’t feel too bad–even the White House isn’t immune.