After cashing in during the Trump era, Joe Biden is once again taking a government paycheck. That’s not stopping him from continuing to add millions to his fortune.
By Zach Everson, Forbes Staff
President Biden is worth an estimated $10 million, up from $8 million when he took office. The increase has nothing to do with family business dealings in far-flung countries. Instead, he is getting richer by doing what a lot of 80-year-old Americans are doing: sitting on real estate. The president owns two homes in Delaware that are worth an estimated $7 million combined, $1.8 million more than they were when he took office.
His most valuable property is a 4,800-square-foot summer home in Rehoboth Beach, worth an estimated $4.5 million. Biden bought it in 2017, the year he left the vice presidency and earned $11.1 million, cashing in on speeches and books. He added a pool, which may have cost as much as $75,000, in November of that year. All of this seemed like a splurge at the time, but it proved to be a wise investment. During the pandemic, homebuyers flocked to bigger properties with outdoor amenities like Biden’s, seven minutes from the ocean and next to a state park loaded with biking trails. The home is now worth an estimated $4.5 million, $1.7 million more than it originally cost.
The president owns an even larger, though not-quite-as-valuable house 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, then a 1,900-square-foot cottage in 2005. For years it was Biden’s most-valuable asset, and he refinanced it repeatedly until receiving his 2017 windfall. Today the property is worth an estimated $2.5 million, $700,000 more than it was worth two years ago. Combined, Biden’s two homes make up about two-thirds of his personal fortune.
Middle-class Joe, whose spokespeople did not respond to requests for comment, has long had an appreciation for some of the finer things in life. His father, Joe Sr., had a series of fledgling businesses, before finding his niche as a car dealer. When Joe Jr. got married to 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). Decent investment. The car remains in the president’s garage and is worth an estimated $100,000 today.
Biden’s love of nice real estate goes back just as far. When he was in his mid-twenties, Biden purchased three houses and 85 acres in Maryland, hoping to one day turn it into a family compound. In the short term, he tried to make money from it, renting out the homes. Meanwhile, he and his family lived rent-free in a cottage nearby, in exchange for managing a local pool. Money was tight, he later explained in his memoir: “I was in constant danger of falling behind.”
Presidential Palaces
Like many other octogenarians, Joe Biden’s wealth is tied up in his homes. He hasn’t hesitated to tap into them over the years, refinancing his mortgages several times.
Nonetheless, he bought an even bigger house in 1975, a 10,000-square-foot mansion that once belonged to a storied Delaware family, the DuPonts. With a courtyard, pool house, circular drive and colonnade, the home was spectacular, so much so that misinformation warriors, including former first son Eric Trump, used it to accuse Biden of corruption in the 2020 presidential race (long after Biden had sold the property). The truth of how he acquired it was more mundane: Biden took on a lot of debt. Earning around $43,000 as a U.S. senator at the time, he borrowed $160,000 to purchase the place for $185,000.
He held onto the home, and thanks to rising property values, even turned it into something of a piggy bank. When he needed cash, he refinanced the property, taking out more and more debt as the years went on. “How did all the mainstream middle-class people get their wealth?” Biden asked a group of mayors earlier this year, decades after he bought the DuPont mansion. “Ninety percent of them through investing in their homes.”
That was certainly true in his case. In 1996, he sold the mansion for $1.2 million, then plunked down $350,000 for a piece of land nearby, where he had plans to build a new home on a pond. Biden constructed two houses on the property, turning it into the Wilmington estate he owns today. He proceeded to treat it like a piggy bank, too, repeatedly refinancing over the years. After he became vice president, the Secret Service started renting the cottage, reportedly paying him $26,400 annually.
One year, his sons Beau and Hunter paid to rebuild the engine of his Corvette. But money was still a problem for the family, especially when Beau got sick with cancer, which ultimately killed him in 2015. Joe Biden contemplated selling his Wilmington home to help out with the medical bills. Barack Obama told him that if he needed extra money, he would be happy to personally cover the expenses.
Cash came pouring in after Biden left the White House. The former vice 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 commander in chief. Between his time as vice president and president, his net worth shot up 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. Never much of a stock investor, Biden has plenty of cash on hand. Today, he and first lady Jill Biden have less than $310,000 invested in the market, all held in mutual funds. Much more is simply sitting in bank accounts. The president collects $400,000 a year in salary, plus about $250,000 in pension payouts.
Should he want any extra liquidity down the road, Biden can always borrow against his holdings. At the end of last year, the president took out a home-equity line of credit against the Rehoboth property, allowing him to draw as much as $250,000. One asset that’s off limits, though, is the Corvette. “They tell me it’s worth a lot of money,” Biden said at a White House bill signing last year. “But I know if I ever sell it, Beau will come down from heaven and smite me down.”
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