Last month, President Donald Trump‘s childhood home sold for $835,000 – a substantial loss from the $2.14 million it last sold for in 2017.
The Tudor-style home has been in extreme disrepair for the past eight years, with neighbors opening up to Daily Mail about the flooding, outages, pests and even burglary scares they’ve been dealing with.
Before Brooklyn-based 1388 Group Inc. (the most recent buyer) stepped in, the once-idyllic home had been abandoned and left to rot.
Neighbors were subsequently living through a nightmare as the front yard became overgrown and littered, and feral cats had taken over.
Prior to the neglect and ominous changing of hands from one buyer to the next, 85-15 Wareham Place was a family home that looked like all the other well-kept properties on the street.
Trump lived with his mother and four siblings in the five-bedroom house built by his father until he was four years old.
Located in Jamaica Estates, Queens, it was within reach of the Manhattan skyline he’d later spend much of his life reshaping.
While the property is now in new hands – and dumpsters and workmen are evidence of a refresh – neighbors speak about their distress during its time in flux.
President Donald Trump lived in the Tudor-style home in Jamaica Estates, Queens, with his real estate developer father Fred C. Trump, mother Maryanne McLeod and four siblings until he was dour years old
Donald Trump was the second of five children and was born in the Jamaica Estates home on June 14, 1946
According to neighbors, the 2017 buyers never lived in the home. Shortly after it was left abandoned following the sale, they say, a chain of disastrous events took place.
One week in September 2018, during a horrid heatwave, many homeowners had no air-conditioning, television or internet service due to an electrical power outage. The origin of the outage was a circuit issue at Trump’s former home.
In 2021, a water-pipe burst in the attic bathroom and ended up flooding some of the nearby residents homes, a neighbor told Daily Mail. The water damage from the busted pipe was so severe that hazardous mold grew from floor to ceiling.
Another neighbor claimed there was an attempted break-in at the property in August 2024 – the alleged trespassers can be seen walking around the property on a home security video reviewed by the Daily Mail.
To the neighbors who saw the two men firsthand, it appeared that when they were unable to go through one of the windows, they tried to bust open the front door and then fled once they were unable to enter.
The terrifying incident caused some neighborhood residents to feel unsafe, particularly those with children.
The grass became so overgrown it in the front yard it was difficult to locate the pathway to the front door
The side yard was equally a mess with rampant grass and weeds growing out of control
A mess of leaves, twigs and garbage are scattered across the lawn infuriating neighbors
Neighbors claimed there was an attempted break-in at the property in August 2024. They said trespassers tried to bust open the door – a broken lock and keyhole on the door is shown here
One neighbor was so fed up with the turmoil, they created an account on X called ‘Why This 24.7?’ posting shocking photos and videos of the once charming home in hopes of luring a more attentive buyer.
‘I loaded everything that pissed me off,’ they told the Daily Mail. ‘I even flagged Trump’s organization, but nobody did anything.’
In one of the photos, a series of notices and citations are posted on the door from the Department of Sanitation, Con Edison and other city offices.
Longtime resident Deborah Ayala-Braun shared gnarly images of overgrown grass and weeds, twisted branches and piles of leaves on the front yard with the Daily Mail.
It got so out of hand that some of the neighbors used their own money to hire a landscaper.
In one post, the X account claimed that the owner never paid their property taxes and the person behind the account showed the Daily Mail an email of a $30,000 tax bill.
Another neighbor, Lucy, who has been living on the block for the last 15 years and takes pride in her beautiful home, described the neighborhood as not so citylike.
‘It is Queens yet you feel like you are in the suburbs,’ she said.
One of the feral cats pictured near Trump’s former home
But, like Ayala-Braun, she would like the integrity of the homes and the charm of the block to be restored. She calls what has taken place at the former Trump residence ‘a disgrace.’
‘We are paying so much money in property taxes to live in a nice neighborhood and then you have a neighbor like this who doesn’t take care of the property.’
On March 28, when Daily Mail went to check out the property, Lucy showed reporters the chopsticks and netting she has been forced to use in her garden to prevent the feral cats from urinating and defecating everywhere.
‘This is what I have to do to prevent them from using part of my garden as their litter box,’ she said.
‘I can’t take it anymore. We have thousands of cats here. They breed behind my garage.
‘I was cutting my roses today and I just stepped in cat s**t… I have cat s**t everywhere.’
Feral cats were seen hiding under cars on the block and roaming the street
A neighbor placed wire netting to keep the cats from making her garden their litter box
‘I have been complaining about this for almost 10 years,’ said Ayala-Braun.
‘The house has been sitting here unoccupied. No one took care of it. No one lived here. No cutting the grass, no leaf removal, no heat, no air-conditioning. The house got destroyed.’
The two-story dwelling became such an eyesore that Ayala-Braun and some of the other neighbors were considering purchasing the home earlier this year to be able to have some control over the property.
The neighbors are hopeful now that 1388 Group Inc., owned by Huisha Zhen, is in charge of the property and has visibly started cleanup efforts.
But, they could also just be the latest in a long line of negligent owners.
In 2016, shortly after the presidential election, a retired engineer who lived at the property sold it to real estate developer, Michael Davis, for $1.14 million, according to property records.
Davis then flipped the house and sold it to a company named Trump Birth House, LLC for $2.14 million in 2017. It is unclear who the actual buyer behind the LLC was, and the company has only been traced back to New York-based lawyer Michael X. Tang, who signed the paperwork at the time.
Tang did not respond to the Daily Mail’s request for comment.
During Trump Birth House’s ownership, the property was turned into an Airbnb for around five months, according to Ayala-Braun.
The rental business was reportedly run by former owner Davis, who was renting the property from Trump Birth House LLC for $4,000 a month, according to The New York Times.
A stay at the house could cost occupants $725 a night, according to The Times reporter who stayed there for a night. As a way to lure in MAGA fanatics, the listing claimed that the Jamaica Estates home is where the president was conceived, and had a life-size cutout of Trump in the living room.
Some Airbnb renters were college-age students and Trump supporters who hosted ‘late night booze-fueled parties,’ one neighbor told the Daily Mail.
At one point, they added, the home’s basement was rented out until a sewage problem prompted the tenant to leave.
In mid-2019, Trump Birth House attempted to auction the property with Paramount Realty USA for a staggering $2.9 million – It never sold, according to The New York Times.
In 2021, the auction company – which was also behind the 2016 and 2017 sales of the property – launched a crowd-funding campaign on behalf of the LLC. The GoFundMe campaign was titled Thank You President Trump and, at the time of this reporting, had raised nearly $8,000 of its $3 million goal.
The purpose appears to have been to raise money and purchase the house, then give the house to Trump. ‘What happens to the historic property is up to him!’ the description reads.
Representatives from Paramount Realty declined Daily Mail’s request for comment.
The inside of the home is gutted all the way down to the studs
On March 28, when the Daily Mail stopped at the home to speak with Zhen, someone loading debris into the dumpster out front told us he was not on site.
The same worker turned his head from the camera and would not speak further when asked about the property.
Looking at some of the demolition taking place, Daily Mail reporters saw mounds of garbage, debris, stucco and wood being loaded into a dumpster before it was carted off.
There were no work permits visible.
Ayala-Braun said there had already been 11 dumpsters hauled away.
‘President Trump’s former house is being gutted the way he is gutting America,’ she said.
As Ayala-Braun shared the latest news of the recent sale with her neighbor Lucy, the longtime resident expressed a moment of elation.
But once she found out what the new owner paid, her smile faded – she had realized the value of her own house just plummeted, big time.
This article was originally published by a www.dailymail.co.uk . Read the Original article here. .