Couch on front porch not shown

The Obamas, who have a pretty nifty income, get treated better by the bank than you do:

 Shortly after joining the U.S. Senate and while enjoying a surge in income, Barack Obama bought a $1.65 million restored Georgian mansion in an upscale Chicago neighborhood. To finance the purchase, he secured a $1.32 million loan from Northern Trust in Illinois.

The freshman Democratic senator received a discount. He locked in an interest rate of 5.625 percent on the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage, below the average for such loans at the time in Chicago. The loan was unusually large, known in banker lingo as a "super super jumbo." Obama paid no origination fee or discount points, as some consumers do to reduce their interest rates.

Compared with the average terms offered at the time in Chicago, Obama's rate could have saved him more than $300 per month.

But...but... how can that be?

When the Obamas secured the loan, their income had risen dramatically. Obama assumed his Senate seat in January 2005, with an annual salary of $162,100. That same month, Random House agreed to reissue an Obama memoir, for which it originally paid $40,000, as part of a $2.27 million deal that included two future nonfiction books and a children's book.

Around the same time, the University of Chicago Hospitals promoted Michelle Obama to a vice president and more than doubled her pay, to $317,000.

Here's an ugly little secret: people with money get better rates and deals from banks than the common riff-raff. There is a little something called an "ongoing banking relationship" where bank customers transfer significant assets from one financial institution to another in search of better rates, discounts, and services:

Obama spokesman Ben LaBolt said the rate was adjusted to account for a competing offer from another lender and other factors. "The Obamas have since had as much as $3 million invested through Northern Trust," he said in a statement.

But never mind that because you just know that the 101st Fighting Keyboarders™ will deploy the Cheetoh-Eating Corp of Engineers to inspect and  appraise this :

The couple wanted to step up from their $415,000 condo. They chose a house with six bedrooms, four fireplaces, a four-car garage and 5 1/2 baths, including a double steam shower and a marble powder room. It had a wine cellar, a music room, a library, a solarium, beveled glass doors and a granite-floored kitchen.

The counter tops! What about the counter tops? Oh ,the humanity....

To provide home improvement context the cornice kerners will cite the paneling they recently installed in their own spare bedroom/office/citizen journalist media center/never-mind-why-daddy-locked-the-door internet room while accusing the Obamas of being elitist for having indoor plumbing and  mailbox that's not nailed to a tree...