Obama's New York apartment in the 1980s up for rent

The apartment where Barack Obama lived during his early days at Columbia University and dreamt of becoming the first black-American President of the US is up for rent.

The apartment is available on rent for USD 2,400 a month, up by USD 500 from the last time it was on the market in the spring of 2010.

The landlord isn't looking for a premium, the broker said, but he still hopes the apartment's past could appeal to young, ambitious types, the Wall Street Journal reported.

"Live Like the President!!!" says the listing on the Citi Habitats website. "Who knows, you just might end up in the White House one day."

When the young Obama lived at 142 West 109th Street in the early 1980s, he and a roommate and chipped in just USD 180 apiece every month for the railroad flat, according to "Barack Obama: The Story," a new biography by David Maraniss.

Obama arrived in August 1981 and dragged his luggage up the stairs to the third-floor walk-up. He had no key, and his repeated knocking produced only the click of a dead bolt down the hall.

"New York. Just like I pictured it," he recalled wryly in his 1995 autobiography, "Dreams from My Father."

"Obviously, this is not a Mount Vernon or a Monticello," Zak Kneider, one of the Citi Habitats brokers listing the apartment, said.

"It's a typical New York City walk-up. A million other people in New York live in these type of apartments," he added.

By yesterday evening, Kneider had received nine emails.