Hail to the cha-ching.
President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden treated their various Delaware real estate holdings like a personal ATM for years, taking out several mortgages and refinancing a whopping 35 times, according to a report.
The couple, said to boast a net worth of $10 million, allegedly borrowed $6 million on the properties over the decades.
The wheeling and dealing dates back to the late 1970s — shortly after Joe and Jill were married. The pair have negotiated new mortgage or credit deals approximately every 17 months, the Daily Mail reported. The frequent refinancing has raised eyebrows.
“It doesn’t make a lot of sense unless they were desperate for cash,” a finance expert commented to the outlet.
The revelations add a layer of intrigue as the President faces scrutiny over his family’s financial past.
The Bidens’ current residence, a mansion purchased in 1996, still has an outstanding $541,000 mortgage nearly three decades later, records show.
The president’s previous Wilmington home, bought in 1975 for $185,000 and offloaded in 1996 for $1.2 million, had 15 mortgages and lines of credit attached to it before being sold to the vice chairman of credit card company MBNA, Delaware’s largest employer, which reportedly hired Hunter Biden that same year.
“Why would anyone view their home as an ATM?” LA realtor Tony Mariotti, founder of RubyHomes.com, asked the Daily Mail.
“Over time, mortgage fees really add up. Paying off a mortgage… is like a forced savings account that bears modest interest,” Mariotti said.
Records show the Bidens purchased their current four-acre spread for $350,000 in 1996 and have since leveraged it with 20 different home credit agreements and mortgages totaling $4.23 million.
Their other significant property, a summer home in Rehoboth Beach bought in 2017 for $2.74 million, was a cash purchase with no mortgages attached.
The barrage of borrowing raises questions about the family’s financial strategy. The couple continue to pull in a fairly substantial income, reporting a joint income of $620,000 in 2023, mostly from their jobs and investments.
But the Bidens’ financial records also show they still carry significant debt, mainly the mortgage on the Wilmington home and an equity loan on the same property.
Their total liabilities range between $350,000 and $850,000. Their assets are estimated between $1 million and $2.6 million.
Records show that between 1978 and 1994, the Bidens took out 13 home loans and two credit agreements totaling $1.72 million.
Things didn’t let up after switching Wilmington homes in the 1990s, when the pair took out construction loans and multiple mortgages.
Using various banks, including Beneficial National, Chase Manhattan, Commerce Bank, TD Bank and Wilmington Savings Fund Society, the borrowing spree continued through 2014.
Source Agencies
