Rainier Ehrhardt/AP - Republican presidential candidate, Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., speaks during a political rally, Tuesday, July 19, 2011, in downtown Aiken, S.C. (AP Photo/The Augusta Chronicle, Rainier Ehrhardt).
The $417,000 mortgage was the cap of what Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would loan at the time in her region.
“The overall borrowing harkens back to the days of easy credit. A lot of people leveraged themselves like this,” said Guy D. Cecala, CEO and publisher of Inside Mortgage Finance.
The Post found Bachmann’s loans in Minnesota property records. Financial disclosures filed with the House list her business loans, but she is not required to divulge personal property debts. She and other presidential candidates have not yet filed required disclosure forms.
Bachmann bought a home in the upscale Stillwater community on Aug. 29, 2008, as she campaigned for a second congressional term, financing $666,999 of the $760,000 home, records show.
Three experts who examined the mortgage documents said it appears the Bachmanns put down about $93,001 or 12 percent. Experts said the down payment would have been fairly common in 2008; most lenders now require at least 20 percent.
The couple’s previous home was on the market at the time and had two loans outstanding. When the house sold a few months later for $334,423, the Bachmanns paid off whatever remained on two prior equity loans for $100,000 and $200,000, records show.
Their golf-course home was custom built with a panelled library, spa and wine cellar for former NFL player Ross Verba in 2005. Verba faced foreclosure after sinking more than $2 million into the property, court and mortgage records show. He originally listed the home for $1.75 million in 2007.
“They [the Bachmanns] had to put a lot of work into it because all the landscaping had died,” said neighbor Nick Dragisich in a telephone interview.
Four months after they took out the mortgage, interest rates dropped, and the Bachmanns refinanced the $417,000 loan for another one of equal value.
The mortgage documents do not disclose the interest rates or other terms. Bachmann campaign officials declined to provide details.
Bachmann’s 2010 financial disclosures reveal a modest financial portfolio. Along with her congressional salary, she reported that their two counseling clinics make no profit aside from her husband’s annual salary, which is not disclosed.
She reported bank account interest income between $2 and $400 and mutual fund investments that earned income between $2,002 and $9,700, which was reinvested.
Bachmann’s portfolio contrasts sharply with other top White House contenders. Mitt Romney, a former Massachusetts governor and venture capitalist, listed assets valued between $190 million and $250 million on his 2008 presidential financial disclosures. Jon Huntsman, a former ambassador to China and Utah governor, is an heir to his family’s chemicals company.
Pawlenty received $120,000 a year as governor, and his wife worked for years as a district court judge. His home is valued at $319,800 in county records.
Mortgage records show that Pawlenty has paid off a number of home equity loans and has one for $45,000 outstanding. Pawlenty’s last state disclosure statement showed he has money market accounts and other securities, but state law does not require disclosure of the assets’ value. He listed no liabilities.
Read more on PostPolitics
Pawlenty struggles to step out of Bachmann’s shadow
Joe Walsh, a star made by the debt ceiling debate
Rick Perry not a frontrunner (yet)
Research editors Alice Crites and Lucy Shackelford contributed to this report.
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