Updated

As the presidential race heats up, President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney are concentrating their focus on one certain house in Washington, D.C. But before they considered the White House their possible residence, the two lived in a variety of places across the U.S. Here’s a roundup of the homes each candidate currently owns.

Mitt Romney

The former governor of Massachusetts owns a smattering of real estate across the country, including homes in Massachusetts, California and New Hampshire. This collection has been pared down; Romney previously owned two other homes -- a large estate in Belmont, MA that he sold for $3.5 million in 2009 and a ski home in Park City, UT that he also dumped in 2009 for a little over $5.25 million.

La Jolla, CA

When Romney is not on the campaign trail, his main home is in the beachfront town La Jolla. Romney and his wife, Ann, purchased the $12 million La Jolla home in 2008, telling reporters he wanted to be somewhere he could “hear the waves.” Apparently a home on the high-priced California coast, (median La Jolla home values hit $1,186,200), was the right location.

It may be the ideal location, but it isn’t quite the ideal home, at least not yet. In August 2011, Romney filed an application with the city to bulldoze the single-story beachfront home and replace it with a larger, two-story home. The construction won’t begin until after election season, though.

Belmont, MA

In June 2010, the Romneys bought a 2-bedroom townhouse in suburban Belmont, shown above. According to property listing information, the Romneys paid $895,000 for the 2,100-square-foot home in the new residential development The Woodlands. This is the first purchase the Romneys have made in the Massachusetts area in two years; previously they claimed their son’s basement apartment as their legal address.

Wolfeboro, NH

The Romneys own an 11-acre property, pictured above, smack dab on the shores of Lake Winnipesaukee in Wolfeboro. Purchased for $3 million in 1997, the Romneys’ 5,400-square-foot main house and additional guest houses are home to the extended Romney family each summer.

Barack Obama

While Obama did spend part of his childhood in Hawaii before moving to Chicago, he owns just one home -- in the Windy City. He and wife Michelle bought the brick home in 2005 for $1.65 million. Located on Greenwood Avenue, the home, pictured below, was built in 1917 and offers 6,199 square feet of space.

Although Obama hasn’t owned any other properties, an apartment he rented while attending Columbia University in the mid-'80s is on the rental market in New York.

The 2-bed, 1-bath Upper West Side apartment has been updated and is available for $2,400 a month.

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Erika Riggs writes on a wide variety of real estate topics, from the all-popular celebrity real estate, to mortgages and home improvement, for the Zillow Blog and other Zillow partners.

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