Jenna Bush Hager & Real Estate: They Still Have a Townhome to Sell in Baltimore

I’ll bet Jenna Bush Hager and her cute hubby, Henry, sure wish they had bought a place in Dallas. They would get a bigger home to bring home baby Mila, and mom and dad would be nearby. Instead, because of work, they bought a cute townhome in the Federal Hill area of Baltimore back in 2008, shortly after they married. They tried to sell the 3 bedroom, 3 bath historic home that dates back to the 1880’s in late 2010, to no avail  They lowered the price to $449,000, only $9,000 more than they paid, according to Curbed. Still no action. So they did what any smart young couple does who wants to move to New York but owns real estate: they leased it. 

Lo and behold, intrepid reporters at The Baltimore Sun decided to go all out “Woodward and Bernstein”-style: they discovered that Jenna and Henry were still getting a homestead exemption on their property taxes for owning the house, even though they had moved away. Get this:

That month, The Sun reported that the couple had moved out of their end-unit home in the 1300 block of S. Charles St. after 21/2 years and put it on the market. Days later, The Washington Post reported that the Hagers had decamped for New York so Jenna could be close to her twin sister, Barbara, and the “Today” show, where she’s a correspondent. Tax-credit activist Matt Gonter quickly alerted state assessors to the development. A month later, though, Henry Hager notified the state assessments agency in writing that the house was still the couple’s residence, Charles said. In an interview, Hager said that until July of last year he was living in the house during the week working at Constellation Energy and traveling to New York on weekends to be with his wife.

But then, oops: when the new tax year began, the Hagers got their tax break of a whopping $296, a break they should not have “enjoyed” because the house was now a rental.

“That is an honest mistake on my part,” said Hager, adding that he called the state assessments agency Monday trying to set things right. “I wasn’t familiar enough, quite frankly, with the tax credit and its existence. I’ll repay whatever I owe.”

That $296 is really going to plump up the Maryland economy. All this complication with property taxes is enough to drive a young person to rent!