During a six-year stint in the Clinton White House, Robert Rubin lived in a suite in the Jefferson Hotel. When Congress is in session, Senator Chuck Schumer rents a small house with three fellow pols. Steven Rattner, another New Yorker who embarked on his own DC tour of duty this year, took a different approach.

On May 15, he purchased a home for $4.35m in the city's posh Kalorama neighbourhood, according to a person familiar with the matter.