Georgetown Keeps Attracting VIPs: Kennedy, Bessent, Schmidt
By • April 7, 2025 0 773
We’ve been playing this game since the election and inauguration: which Trump administration cabinet member or appointee is landing where? Many news sites have been writing about who bought where. And the latest news item: Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., is buying a house on the east side of Georgetown.
Of course, the usual neighborhoods are listed: Georgetown, Foxhall, Kalorama, Massachusetts Avenue Heights and McLean.
And you know it’s kind of a big deal when a real estate broker tells you not to specify an appointee’s address because the Secret Service asked.
Still, neighbors know where Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Mark Zuckerberg, Scott Bessent, Howard Lutnick, Sen. David McCormick and Eric Schmidt have moved into.
They already knew Schmidt bought the N Street house, briefly owned by Jackie Kennedy after the assassination of JFK. He has put enough foliage on the property for neighbors to notice since last year.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s street was pictured in the Wall Street Journal with a drone’s eye view over his place. Although no address was given, neighbors knew.
A few days ago, Carol Joynt of CBS News scooped the latest: “Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., the Health and Human Services secretary, is buying a house in Georgetown, a tony neighborhood in Washington, D.C., according to sources familiar with the sale.
“He was scheduled to close on the property on Friday. The 4,800-square-foot property was initially listed for $4.85 million, according to the multiple listing service database. The price was recently reduced to $4.695 million.
“Kennedy, who was spotted doing a walk-through at the home this week with his security detail’s vehicles parked outside, will live in the same neighborhood as the woman whose mother sold Mar-a-Lago to Donald Trump in 1985.”
Joynt is hinting that Ellen Charles lives nearby — as does she.
Everyone knows that Jeff Bezos has a place on S Street, next to the Historic Woodward Wilson House.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg purchased in the Woodland Normanstone neighborhood, Politico reported last week.
The local real estate news makes the international scene as well.
From the Daily Mail: “Howard Lutnick, the boss of stockbrokerage Cantor Fitzgerald and Trump’s pick for commerce secretary, paid $25 million for the Foxhall-area home of Fox News anchor Bret Baier — a new record for the city.
“David McCormick, a former hedge fund boss and new Republican senator for Pennsylvania, spent $10.5 million on a Georgetown house that was owned by the late attorney C. Boyden Gray, sources told The Wall Street Journal.
“Daniel Heider, of Sotheby’s International Realty, says the ‘Trump bump,’ as it’s known, is ‘not just anecdotal, it’s measurable.’
Heider told Axios: “The ultra-luxury segment, in particular, has emerged as the clearest beneficiary.” He added that the public never even hears about the biggest sales, which are hidden via LLCs, trusts or estate lawyers.
There were 87 home sales above $5 million in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area last year, compared to 53 in 2023 and 16 in 2016, according to data from Bright MLS.
Still, a few months ago, Tom Anderson of Washington Fine Properties told Yahoo News that roughly 20 percent of deals above $5 million since November have been tied to the new administration, but the rest are locals. “There’s much more confidence in this market,” he said. “The focus of the incoming administration is totally on the economy and strengthening the economy.”
Did we miss anyone? Let us know — Devaney@Georgetowner.com
