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Barack and Michelle Obama recently resurfaced to the public eye with a high-powered appearance at the Democratic National Convention, but one of their longtime homes in Chicago is now also getting a chance at the spotlight, as it has been listed with an ask of $550,000.
The four-bedroom, three-bathroom condo in the Windy City’s Hyde Park neighborhood is where the couple lived for more than a decade. During their tenure as homeowners of the apartment from 1993 to 2005, the Obamas’ daughters, Malia and Sasha, were born, and Barack was elected to the Illinois State Senate and then the U.S. Senate.
In 2005, the Obamas sold the 2,200-square-foot apartment to Grammy-award-winning jazz singer Kurt Elling and his wife, Jennifer Elling, and moved to Kenwood. The Ellings are now selling the home with the assistance of Maureen Murnane and India Whiteside of @properties Christie’s International Real Estate.
The lakefront condo building was constructed in 1910 and is in close proximity to several parks, including Promontory Point, Washington Park and 57th Street Beach. It is also within walking distance of the Metra commuter train, several restaurants and shops, and it’s about a mile from the University of Chicago. In 2026, the university is slated to open the Obama Presidential Center in Jackson Park.
“History was made while the Obamas lived in this home, and the opportunity to own a piece of that history is very exciting,” Maureen Murnane of @properties Christie’s International Real Estate said in a statement. “We’re honored to represent this storied home.”
The home still retains many of its original features, such as wood trim and ceiling beams, tile floors, a built-in hutch and a green tile fireplace that was memorialized in a photograph with Michelle Obama published in Chicago Magazine in 2004. The apartment also features a sunroom and back porch. The condo community is gated.
Elling is a native of Chicago, and hehas been nominated for 16 Grammy Awards over the course of his career. He has won two Grammys, one in 2009 for Best Jazz Vocal Album for his Dedicated To You: Kurt Elling Sings The Music Of Coltrane And Hartman, and one in 2021 for the same category for his album Secrets Are The Best Stories.
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