Bernanke's Home Is Case in Slump's Point

Federal Reserve boss Ben Bernanke’s own home illustrates the very crisis his organization must fight—in the midst of a national housing slump, it’s worth roughly the same as when he bought it in 2004, Bloomberg reports. Values peaked just after that; the fact that his Capitol Hill pad is still worth about $839,000 suggests the downturn is reaching the country’s richest neighborhoods.

“Even though he's the Fed chairman, he's going to get hit—but I think a lot of people will in Washington,” says an economist. The median price on Capitol Hill dropped $5,000 from 2006 to 2007, but values haven’t collapsed as in many areas, says a real-estate agent. Bernanke’s house remains nothing to scoff at, worth four times as much as the median DC abode. (More Ben Bernanke stories.)