WHAT IS THE WHITE HOUSE WORTH?

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors of London decided to put a real estate market value on the White House when it met for its 2016 Summit in Washington earlier this year. They gave the assignment to Prisant and Ann Gray, a real estate consultant from Los Angeles. The professionals arrived at an estimation of value for the White House and its 132 rooms, 18 acres of land and some 750 artifacts at $250 million. Prisant and Gray used the three standard methods of appraising anything of value: cost, income and comparables. Gray said she arrived at an $90 million value for the White House and its land by comparing it with the construction costs of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African American History & Culture nearby. She tried to measure the White House income potential by analyzing it against the Jefferson, a high-end hotel up the street. She put the value of the 18 acres the residence rests on at zero because the property, technically owned by the Interior Department, has no zoning. It has so many rules and regulations governing it, and so little vacant land nearby to compare it with, that it is difficult to measure.
* But imagine what it’ll be worth once Trump gets in there and puts in the casino.
* Did they figure in the value of the underground tunnel system Bill Clinton put in to get to all the brothels?
* And don’t forget the income potential of the White House bowling alley.
* Wow, smart move working on this, while other conventions just waste their time partying.
* Sound more like the Royal Institution of Too Much Time on Their Hands.
* Next up: How much would the Washington Monument be worth if it were converted to condos?
* Just as long as they don’t say it’s worth less than that dump Buckingham Palace.
* Prisant and Gray used the three standard methods of appraising, and then they reached back and pulled the numbers out of their ass.