During his first year in office, President Barack Obama's home has lost 5.1% of its value. No, not his house in Chicago, the White House.

According to a new "Zestimate" by the witty folks at Zillow, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. is now worth a measly $292.5 million.

That decline mirrored the 5% drop seen across the country, Zillow reports, but was higher than the 3.6% in the Washington, D.C. area.


It compared favorably to the 7.2% drop experienced by the previous tenants during their final year overseeing the Lincoln and 15 other bedrooms. Only 28 properties for sale on Zillow had higher prices.

Of course, anyone who has ever looked up their own house on Zillow (hands?) knows how easily the company's self-proported "proprietary formula" can be manipulated. Just last week I updated my mid-century Modern (previously known as 1970s "ranch") by adding the pool (which has been here since 1971, just not on Zillow) and remodeled kitchen (that one I can take credit for). I gained 10% overnight without even having to trim back my hedge.

Could such Web shenanigans be at work on the nation's First House? Strangely, since the Zillow post about its Zestimate went up earlier today, the 55,000-square-foot White House's value has dropped by almost another million.

Surely Obama does not have time for such frivolity, but the trajectory of the White House value graph may seem like good news for a president dealing with far harsher statistics. At at 50%, Obama's approval rating is down 19 percentage points from its 52-week high, according to the most recent Gallup Poll -- a high reached right around the time of his inauguration.

More concerning to the Obamas may be that Chicago house, at 5046 S. Greenwood Drive, which reportedly has nosedived 50% to just over a million, according to Zillow, since the couple bought it in 2005.