With Mold and Cats Gone, Trump's Boyhood Home Sells

Renovated Queens house brings almost $2M
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Sep 12, 2026 12:25 PM CDT
With Mold and Cats Gone, Trump's Boyhood Home Sells
The boyhood home of Donald Trump is seen on Jan. 17, 2017, in New York.   (AP Photo/Kathy Willens, File)

President Trump's childhood home has sold for nearly $2 million after a renovation transformed the New York City residence from a mold-ridden cat den to a modern abode. The president lived at the Tudor-style Queens estate until age 4. His father, developer Fred Trump, built the home in the affluent Jamaica Estates neighborhood in 1940; the family hasn't owned it in years. The sale price, $1.93 million, appeared Friday on real estate websites after a buyer, whose name hasn't been disclosed, entered into a contract in July, the AP reports.

The seller, Tommy Lin, had purchased the five-bedroom, three-bathroom home last year for $835,000 after it sat vacant and neglected for years. Lin, a developer, spent another $500,000 on an eight-month interior overhaul that added amenities including a chef's kitchen, herringbone wood floors and spa-like bathrooms, the New York Post reported. The home has changed hands several times in recent years, including for $2.14 million months after Trump became president in 2017, according to Zillow.

The buyer was an entity called Trump Birth Home LLC, and the home was briefly offered for rent on Airbnb, complete with copies of a life-size cardboard cutout of Trump, copies of his book The Art of the Deal, and a framed People magazine cover featuring Trump. It was listed for sale again in 2019 with an asking price of $2.9 million but went unsold until Lin snapped it up. In the meantime, the Post reported, the home fell into disrepair, with water damage and mold from a burst pipe, and a colony of feral cats taking up residence where Trump spent his earliest years.

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