Barack And Michelle Obama Close The Deal On Their Martha’s Vineyard Estate

Barack and Michelle Obama, the former U.S. president and first lady, bought a seven-bedroom home on Martha’s Vineyard the week before Thanksgiving at a 21% discount off the listing price, according to the deed filed at the county’s registry office on Dec. 4.

The Obamas paid $11.75 million for the property listed with a $14.85 million price tag. The same day the deed was recorded, a mortgage for $7.05 million also was put on the record. The lender was JP Morgan Chase, and the loan had a standard second-home rider.

The prior owner, Boston Celtics co-owner Wyc Grousbeck, had been trying to sell the home, set on 29 waterfront acres, since August 2015 when he initially listed it at $22.5 million, according to Zillow. Over the ensuing four years, the property was on and off the market with three price reductions.

The 6,892-square-foot house has private beaches along the shore of Edgartown’s Great Pond, a mix of fresh and salty water that opens to the ocean. It’s clad in weathered shingles, the traditional style on Martha’s Vineyard.

The U-shaped house has a living room with a vaulted ceiling and fieldstone fireplace, a circular dining room lined with windows, and a master bedroom suite with a fireplace and a private sundeck overlooking the water.

There’s also a screened-in porch with a fireplace and a pool surrounded by a garden.

The Obamas are regular summer visitors to Martha’s Vineyard, about five miles off the coast of Massachusetts’ Cape Cod. The former president and his wife, the author of the best-selling memoir “Becoming,” spent seven of Obama’s eight presidential summers on the island.

The couple rented the home this summer, arriving on the former president’s birthday, Aug. 4, and decided to buy it.

A day after his arrival, Obama was spotted on one of his favorite links, the Farm Neck Golf Club in Oak Bluffs, about eight miles from his new home.

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This post first appeared on Forbes.com. To see the original, click here.