While the average cost of a home in the United States has been on a steady increase over the past fifty years (minus the Great Recession), the selling price of properties bearing the Trump name has been on a steep decline over the last fifteen years, an analysis of sales data by the Associated Press reveals.

The selling prices of homes has gone up around 80% since 2015, according to data from the Census Bureau; the AP, however, found that the sales price of condos and hotel suites in Trump-branded has dropped by one-third over that time.  “They’re giving them away,” says Lane Blue who paid $160,500 in March for a studio in Trump’s Las Vegas tower, $350,000 less than the seller paid in 2008.

Trump properties may be suffering from the Trump brand, given the historic taint left after his four year political career.  But there are other causes as well:  the areas in which Trump invested have been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic; people are seeking single family homes and not condos; and Trump properties tend to be older and not particularly well-kept. 

The Associated Press reviewed more than 4,000 transactions over the past 15 years in 11 Trump-branded buildings in Chicago, Honolulu, Las Vegas and New York, finding that the value of the properties in those buildings fell at a faster rate than comparable properties.  Having “TRUMP” emblazoned on the front of these buildings have put off prospective buyers from even viewing the residences.  It hasn’t made some current residents happy, either.

“I’d be happy if his name was taken off,” says Gary Gabriel, who owns an apartment in Trump Palace on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. “It’s embarrassing.”