Accessibility links

Breaking News
USA

Post-White House, Obamas to Rent Washington Mansion


Real estate circles buzzed May 25, 2016, over reports that President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama have decided to rent this nine-bedroom mansion in one of Washington’s poshest neighborhoods when he leaves office in January 2017.
Real estate circles buzzed May 25, 2016, over reports that President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama have decided to rent this nine-bedroom mansion in one of Washington’s poshest neighborhoods when he leaves office in January 2017.

U.S. President Barack Obama, his wife, Michelle, and their two daughters plan to move to a nine-bedroom mansion in Washington's fashionable Kalorama neighborhood when his eight years in the White House end next January.

The White House has not made an official announcement, but people familiar with the family's plans say that the first couple will rent a $5 million home that is just three kilometers from the White House. Kalorama is close to Washington's Embassy Row (diplomatic quarter) and the home where U.S. vice presidents live.

The Obamas own a home in Chicago, the country's third biggest city, where the president first entered politics. The rent they will pay in Washington is not yet known, but real-estate experts say the going rate could be $22,000 a month.

The president said earlier this year that his family would stay in Washington at least until the couple's younger daughter, Sasha, graduates from high school in 2019. She attends the private Sidwell Friends School, which her older sister, Malia, is graduating from in June, before taking a gap year off and enrolling in Harvard University.

The new Obama home was last sold in 2014 to Joe Lockhart, once a press secretary for former president Bill Clinton, and his wife, Giovanna Gray Lockhart, a magazine editor. They have moved to New York, where he is the chief spokesman for the National Football League.

The red brick home has a steep roof-line and spacious rooms totaling 2,500 square meters of space, 8 1/2 bathrooms, white marble countertops and a terrace with formal gardens.

Obama will be first president in nearly a century to remain in Washington after leaving office, the last being Woodrow Wilson in the early 20th century.

XS
SM
MD
LG