There was an interesting, if little-noticed piece in the Delaware press over the weekend about Joe Biden's home. It helps explain how Biden can continue to make the argument that he's an ordinary guy, despite drawing a fat Senate salary for longer than most Americans has been alive. The secret: his money is tied up in a home whose value may far exceed $2 million. And even more interesting is the story of how Biden scored such a nice home deal:
In 1996, Biden sold a home in Greenville for the asking price of $1.2 million -- more than six times what he paid two decades earlier -- to John R. Cochran III, a top executive at the MBNA credit card bank that was a longtime political benefactor.
Using profits from that sale, Biden paid $350,000 cash to real estate executive and developer Keith D. Stoltz for 4.2 vacant acres -- a long, narrow lot a few miles from Biden's old home. Stoltz had bought that same lot five years earlier for the same price.
Stephen Pyle, who sold the land to Stoltz in 1991, said he was surprised that Stoltz, who lived on a neighboring estate, did not make any profit selling to Biden. "That doesn't sound like Keith Stoltz," Pyle, an artist who now lives in Texas, said of Stoltz, whose company recently proposed a $525 million project at nearby Barley Mill Plaza, a former DuPont Co. office campus.
So Biden sold his home at the asking price -- in a 'soft' real estate market where similar homes were selling for much less -- to an MBNA executive whose company paid him more than $330,000 to relocate from Maryland to Delaware. One month later, Biden bought 4 acres of lakefront property from another supporter, paying the same price that the supporter had paid for it 5 years earlier.
Byron York wrote about the questions surrounding Biden's home sale a few weeks back:
It is customary for appraisers to evaluate homes in relation to similar properties in the area, or "comparables." In the case of Biden's house, the appraiser compared the home to another large old house about a quarter of a mile away. That house-which was in similar condition-was judged to be worth $1,013,000. It sold in August 1995 for $800,000 (it should be noted that the house did not have a pool, which Biden's does; on the other hand the house had central air conditioning, which Biden's did not, and it was on a larger lot). The appraiser also looked at two other newer houses in the area. One was appraised at $1,230,000 and sold for $1,007,500. The other was appraised at $1,163,000 and sold for an even $1 million. In all three cases, the homes sold for a good deal less than their appraised value. In comparison, it appears Cochran simply paid Biden's full asking price. And, according to people familiar with the situation, the house needed quite a bit of work; contractors and their trucks descended on the house for months after the purchase...
Was the home sale a sweet deal for Biden? If you talk to people involved in real estate in the Wilmington area, you'll quickly find that few want to approach the question. "I wouldn't touch that with a ten- foot pole," said one agent. Another declined to say anything. And a third agent said only, "In my opinion, (Cochran) overpaid." None wanted to be identified by name.
Perhaps the mainstream media can spare a few of the reporters investigating Trig Palin's provenance to investigate Biden's string of lucky land deals.
