What's the White House worth? : Rooftop Views

Rooftop Views

What's the White House worth?

Real estate website Zillow.com announced it has calculated a Zestimate(R) value for the White House were it actually a home that could be bought and sold. That estimated value - $308,058,000 - would make this by far the most expensive residence in the United States, however still more than $23 million less than its value one year ago. Zillow(R) calculated this value using its proprietary Zestimate algorithm that determines a home’s estimated worth today based on public data and recent sales.

“Zillow publishes free data and Zestimate values for 84 million homes across the country - that’s more than 90 percent of U.S. homes. We thought it would be fitting to provide a Zestimate value for the most famous U.S. home of all as president-elect Obama and his family prepare to move in,” said Stan Humphries, Zillow’s vice president of data and analytics. “Obviously the White House will never be for sale, but given the immense amount of public data on this home, we thought it would be fun to crunch the numbers and say, ‘what if.’”

Zillow calculates and publishes updated home values on nearly all U.S. homes several times a week using a proprietary algorithm that considers data such as a home’s physical attributes, recent comparable sales, tax information and local market trends. To determine the White House Zestimate, Zillow’s team of data statisticians first looked at the home’s physical characteristics, including 55,000 square feet of indoor space, 132 total rooms, 35 bathrooms, 16 bedrooms, three kitchens and 18 acres of premium downtown Washington, DC land. They then considered the most expensive home sales in Washington, DC in 2008, as well as other historic homes in the DC area recently for sale, and calculated the premium historic homes typically fetch over similar homes with no historical significance. Zillow’s statisticians deemed the White House the most historic home in America and applied a maximum historical premium to their models to determine a Zestimate value today of $308,058,000.

To put that hefty price tag in perspective, Zillow’s data team ran a few more computations:

Were someone to take out a standard 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage on the White House today (assuming 20% down and a 6% rate), their monthly payment (including principal and interest) would be $1.48 million. Even with the Treasury Department’s proposed 4.5% rate on 30-year mortgages, a monthly payment would still top $1.25 million.

If President-elect Obama were to spend 30% of his gross income as U.S. president on housing, that would total $133,333 per year, or $11,111 per month(1), falling short by more than $1 million on a monthly payment for this home.

One would need to make $53.3 million in gross income a year to afford a standard 30-year fixed-rate mortgage on the White House, and have $62 million saved up for a down payment of 20%.

The White House’s estimated value has decreased by 7.2%, or more than $23 million dollars, in the past year. However, the home’s value has nearly doubled from the $167,861,500 Zillow estimates it was worth in January 2001 when George W. Bush was sworn in as president.

The White House Zestimate value is as of January 8, 2009. All Zestimate values are updated several times a week and the White House will be no exception, it will fluctuate based on market trends for DC and the Downtown neighborhood in which it resides.