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President Donald Trump speaking in the lobby of Trump Tower in New York City.
- Condo prices are plummeting at Trump Tower.
- A report said average prices are down to their lowest rates since the financial crisis.
- Donald Trump's presidency could be partially to blame for the dropoff.
The prices of condos at New York City's Trump Tower have plummeted since President Donald Trump launched his campaign in 2015.
The dropoff is so severe that real estate in the Fifth Avenue building has reached its lowest value since the Great Recession, The Wall Street Journal reported last week.
The average price per square foot in the property is $2,100, down 13% from 2016 and 23% from the year before, according to The Journal.
Analysts are pointing to multiple factors that could explain the cheaper prices, including heightened security since Trump was elected, a general dislike of Trump, or an overall deceleration in the luxury condo market in the area.
However, Trump Tower's condos are dropping more rapidly than other properties in Midtown Manhattan. Excluding new developments, the average price per square foot in the area has seen a slight uptick of 0.3% since 2015.
"There is no way of knowing whether prices have taken a nose dive because of the restrictions that are now associated with living in the building - such as the Secret Service and police presence - or because the Trump brand so closely aligned with the building is having a depressing effect on prices," Gabby Warshawer, director of research at the real-estate website CityRealty, told The Journal.
Boaz Mashiach, whose real estate group lists two Trump Tower properties for $7.8 million, said Trump's presidency could be a factor in the building's declining condo prices, but added that the market was "very soft right now."
"Some people don't like to live in his building - and there are some people who want to live only in his building," he told The Journal.
Trump Tower, standing 664 feet tall, occupies prime real estate near Manhattan's Central Park. It was the headquarters for Trump's presidential campaign and was the site of several protests and demonstrations following Trump's election.
The skyscraper isn't the only one of Trump's properties in an apparent slump. The nearby Trump International Hotel and Tower has seen a 24% drop in its average price-per-square-foot rate since 2015, down to $3,600, according to The Journal.
On Thursday, the Independent reported that the Trump Organization is worth just one tenth of the value it previously claimed.