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.
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.
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.”
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.”
