I was going to speculate that they probably had “Zero” credit since they’d never owned a house before, probably never even owned a car since they’ve spent their entire lives on the public dole, and after finally being evicted from the Peoples House, had to get a mortgage for the first time (until the millions started rolling in).
Of course it’s grossly unfair that we the taxpayers didn’t just GIVE them a house or two, and some going-away cash, isn’t it? /s
If you go shopping for a home worth $1.33 million (I checked and that’s the value of the NY home of the Clintons)...most banks would handle the loan as long as you put down roughly half the down-payment. In this case, I’d take a guess that they absolutely didn’t want to put down more than $200k (absolute max), and wanted to make significant monthly payments. I’d suggest that some banks might look at the situation and automatically approve it, but some banks might frown (even if he was an ex-president) and just suggest another bank might be better suited for them.
One of the great shocks occurred in the initial months of the Clinton period in DC....when various small-town players from Arkansas were brought into DC to participate in high-stakes politics. They were used to Little Rock home prices and were not exactly believing in the DC value of $250k (at the time) for an upscale four-bedroom. I had an individual describe the meeting between himself, the realtor and the Clinton-appointee for a nice upscale home over in Arlington. The wife was all charmed by the place, but the husband just quietly sat there and fumed at the pricing level. He didn’t have $75k to put down and keep the monthly mortgage within reason. Whatever he was paid in salary....was going to be eaten up drastically by the mortgage.