Barack Obama's Former Manhattan Apartment Is up for Sale — Take a Look Inside
44th US President Barack Obama educated himself on law and politics at the prestigious Columbia University in New York City before attending Harvard and launching a brilliant political career. This is where he lived as a student.
About three decades ago, 59-year-old former US president Barack Obama was just another college student at Columbia University in New York City who lived in several rental apartments in Upper Manhattan.
Now, one of those temporary homes of the politician is up for sale for $1,450,000 by the real estate agency Brown Harris Stevens, as People reported late in November 2020.
Barack Obama speaking at the Obama Foundation Summit at the Institute of Technology Chicago, Illinois, in October 2019. | Image: Getty Images.
The three-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment belongs to a 39-unit cooperative apartment building in the Morningside Heights neighborhood, and it is only five minutes (walk) away from Columbia’s campus.
The place has been renovated a few times since Obama inhabited it in his youth, and its images have been “virtually staged” for promotional reasons, but it can still give us a glimpse of Obama’s quarters back in the day.
The building, located between Broadway and Riverside Drive, dates from the pre-war period and it reflects its architectural style with high ceilings, large windows, and lots of space.
Nowadays, the building counts with an elevator, in-unit laundry, and a live-in superintendent, but we do not know which amenities were there when Obama lived in it.
MARTHA’S VINEYARD HOME
Early in December 2019, it surfaced that Barack and his longtime wife, 56-year-old attorney, author, and former First Lady, Michelle Obama, started a new chapter of their married life by settling on Martha’s Vineyard, in Massachusetts.
The Obamas acquired a seven-bedroom mansion in the island for $11.75 million from a trust belonging to banker James F. Reynolds, a close friend of the former US president since the start of his political career as a state senator in Illinois.
Barack and Michelle gave the property a try the summer prior to purchasing it, with the husband and wife having rented it during the aforementioned season. They clearly fell in love with the summer home and made the decision to buy it.
GOOD TIMES FOR THE COUPLE
The last couple of years have been good for the Obamas. In 2019, Michelle released her memoir “Becoming” with great success, including a sold-out book tour and more than 11 million copies sold.
Barack and Michelle Obama during the unveiling ceremony of their official portraits at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC, in February 2018. | Image: Getty Images.
Michelle’s book was followed by Barack’s own memoir titled “A Promised Land,” published in November 2020, which is already a best-seller about to top the sales of both Bill Clinton’s and George W. Bush's memoirs.
The book is the first of two volumes on which Barack looks back on his presidential experience, starting with the 2008 election and his first term as the President of the United States of America.