Rex Tillerson drops $5.5 Million on new DC digs

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has dropped $5.5 million on a home in a posh neighborhood in Washington, D.C.—paying more for the new urban digs than for most of his properties in Texas, property records show.

Tillerson, 64, a political newcomer who served as chief executive of Exxon Mobil for 10 years, closed on the four-bedroom, four-and-a-half-bathroom property in Kalorama earlier this month, according to Washingtonian magazine, which first reported the sale.

Property records show the home sold to a Texas-registered limited liability company called R2 Real Estate—likely a reference to the first initials of his and his wife’s names, Rex and Renda. The sellers were Richard Hanlon, a former AOL executive and his wife, Pamela, who paid $3.15 million for the home in 2011, records show.

The home sold privately in an off-market deal, according to brokerage Washington Fine Properties, which was involved in the sale. Mark McFadden, who is listed on the website as the sales agent, did not immediately return a request for comment.

The Tillersons join a cohort of high flyers in pricey Kalorama. Barack and Michelle Obama are renting a home in the neighborhood for a couple of years while their youngest daughter, Sasha, attends high school in D.C. Blocks away are Ivanka Trump and her husband, senior White House adviser Jared Kushner.

The four-story, semi-detached home is connected to its south side neighbor and is conveniently located amid a cluster of embassies, including Korea, Japan, Turkey, Mexico and Slovenia—the home country of First Lady Melania Trump.

The Tillersons’ new home was more expensive than many of their properties in Texas. Their vacation home in Horseshoe Bay, Texas, is valued at around $3.25 million, according to county assessment records. And they paid just $1.53 million for their 18-acre rural estate in Denton County, Texas, records show.

The State Department and a lawyer for the Tillersons did not immediately return requests for comment.

Realtor.com contributed to this article.