Two million richer since taking office, Biden is once again taking a government salary. That doesn’t stop him from continuing to add millions to his fortune.
United States (U.S.) President Biden is estimated to be worth ten million dollars, up from eight million when he took office. The increase has nothing to do with family affairs in distant lands. Instead, he’s getting richer by doing what many 80-year-old Americans do: sitting on real estate. The president owns two houses in Delaware that together are worth about seven million dollars, $1.8 million more than when he took office.
His most valuable asset is his summer home in Rehoboth Beach. Biden bought the property in 2017 when he left the vice presidency and earned $11.1 million from speeches and books. He added a swimming pool, which may have cost as much as $75,000. It all seemed like a waste of money at the time, but it turned out to be a wise investment. The house is now worth $4.5 million, $1.7 million more than it originally cost.
The president owns an even larger, though not quite as valuable, home in Wilmington’s picturesque Greenville neighborhood. It started as just a piece of land, which Biden bought for $350,000 in 1996, before adding a 6,850-square-foot colonial-style home two years later, and then, in 2005, a cottage. Today, the property is worth $2.5 million, $700,000 more than it was worth two years ago. Together, Biden’s two homes make up about two-thirds of his personal wealth.
“Middle-class Joe,” as he is called in political circles, and whose spokesmen did not respond to requests for comment, has long appreciated some of the finer things in life. His father, Joe Sr., had a series of start-up businesses before finding his niche as a car dealer. When Joe Jr. Married his first wife in 1967, his father gave him a 1967 Corvette Stingray, paying $5,600 at the time ($51,000 in today’s dollars). A decent investment. The car remains in the president’s garage and is worth about $100,000 today.
Biden’s love towards beautiful real estate goes back just as far. When he was in his mid-twenties, Biden bought three houses and 85 acres in Maryland, hoping to one day turn them into a family estate. In the short term, he tried to make money by renting out these properties. Meanwhile, he and his family lived for free in a nearby cottage in exchange for managing the local swimming pool. Money was tight, he later explained in his memoirs: “I was in constant danger of falling behind.”
Presidential villas
Joe Biden’s wealth is tied to his real estate. He hasn’t hesitated to use them over the years, refinancing his mortgages several times.
However, in 1975 he bought an even bigger mansion that once belonged to the famous Delaware family, the DuPonts. With a yard, pool house, circular driveway and colonnade, the home was spectacular, so much so that disinformation warriors, including Eric Trump, used it to accuse the current president of corruption in the 2020 presidential race. The truth about how he acquired these assets was much more mundane: Biden went into debt. Earning about $43,000 as a U.S. senator at the time, he borrowed $160,000.
He held on to the house, and thanks to rising property values, he even turned it into something of a piggy bank. In 1996, he sold the mansion for $1.2 million, then spent $350,000 on a piece of land nearby, where he planned to build a new lake house. Biden built two houses on the property, turning it into the Wilmington estate he owns today. And he continued to treat this property as a piggy bank, repeatedly refinancing it over the years. After he became vice president, the Secret Service began renting out the cottage, reportedly paying him $26,400 a year.
The former vice president and current president earned $11.1 million in 2017, $4.6 million in 2018, $1 million in 2019 and $630,000 in 2020, the year he was elected president. During his time as vice president and president, his net worth increased from an estimated $2.5 million to $8 million.
Now he’s even richer, thanks to his real estate holdings, which have helped his net worth outpace inflation. Biden has plenty of cash on hand. Today, he and first lady Jill Biden have less than $310,000 invested in the market, all of which they keep in mutual funds. The president collects a $400,000 annual salary, plus about $250,000 in pension payments. Late last year, the president took out a line of credit against the Rehoboth property, allowing him to draw as much as $250,000, Forbes reports.
E.Dz.
