The Family and Background of the Duchess of Cambridge, the Middletons 1, Until 2022

[ingenue]

where are the links to fotos of kate?

 

[tiaraprin]

Well, where I come from in the USA, a million dollar home does mean at the very least being a millionaire. If you can afford it, you have money. You may not be Bill Gates, but you aren't lacking for anything in life.

I live in a tiny studio apartment. If you are living in a tiny million dollar home Elspeth, you are being ripped off. A million dollar home here will get you more!! But then again, I don't know what your definition of tiny is.

 

[Elspeth]

I'm not the one living in a tiny million-dollar home; that's ailstalia. Have a look at her profile and then check out the data. I'm looking at one listing in that city; 2 bedrooms, 1 bath, 68 years old, 1200 square feet, 1-car garage, listed for $989,000. And one with 2 bedrooms, 1 bath, 52 years old but remodelled, less than 1000 square feet, 2-car garage, $1,095,000. One with 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, 2-car carport (no garage), 53 years old, 1900 square feet, $1,274,000. And those are typical prices. She absolutely is not exaggerating.

Plus, remember, if you've got a large loan on a million-dollar house, you are not only not a millionaire, but you're paying a huge chunk of change to the bank every month. The only good thing is that real estate appreciates fast there, but the problem is that when you buy, everything is correspondingly more expensive.

 

[tiaraprin]

All I can say Elspeth is your British Pound would buy more here!! That is a rip off!! The real estate prices in NY are sky high, but you beat us--that is really scary!!!

A million US dollars would get you at least 6 bedrooms, large acres of land, 6 bathrooms (some with jacuzzis), a swimming pool, library, a huge kitchen, formal dining room, and a large foyer. It could also get you servant living quarters depending where you are buying!

Here in NY, only the truly wealthy buy these homes. Sometimes you will find some nitwit who thinks he/she can do it, but they declare bankruptcy.

 

[Elspeth]

This IS the USA we're talking about; like I said, check out her profile. Property in most of Britain is nowhere near as expensive.

Check your PMs in a minute; I'm going to send you some data.

BTW, I think I'm probably misleading people cos you're the second person today who assumes I live in the UK; I'm British but I live in the USA.

 

[ailstalia]

it IS slightly misleading ok, so i lied a bit, our house is worth a bit more around 2 mil?, but my parents thought that the public education was worth it. And money is better spent on a home than private schooling right? I wonder what most rich people see in private/boarding schools for secondary schooling. It seems like wasting a lot of money when the children learn the same thing anywhere.

 

[Elspeth]

I think a lot of the time, people send their kids to private school because of who they meet and how much easier it is to get into a good university, and often to keep them out of the state schools. I mean, you know that however good the local state school is near Highgrove, the Prince of Wales wasn't going to send his sons there, and it wasn't just because of security concerns.

 

[Frothy]

Frankly I doubt Kate and PW asked each other who their ancestors were.

I hazard a guess Kate has a pretty good idea who PW's ancestors were!

 

[sparks]

I think she's pretty well-off..I mean I don't think her family is like a billionare..but they have money!!!

 

[segolen]

yes, she is, according to the british understanding of " rich"

 

[lady_windsor]

shes probably rich if she can affod to go to the same school as the future monarch

 

[segolen]

shes probably rich if she can affod to go to the same school as the future monarch

you 've got my point. Her parrents paid tons of cash for her bording school, prior to St. Andrews

 

[Alice Vilghelmina]

shes probably rich if she can affod to go to the same school as the future monarch

Dunno why but she recollecte me Mel C
I guess she's rich, but as i know high education in GB is expensive in any case.

 

[Duchess]

Not sure how everyone feels about this but here goes....William and Harry aren't rich, their Grandmother is and neither of them will be until they come into their inheritance from their mother and then from their father. Right now everything they do is paid for by someone else albeit their father or Grandmother. Mind you, they don't want for anything. As for marrying wealthy, William certainly won't be allowed to marry anyone that doesn't come from some kind of wealth. He will the need the approval of gov't and his Grandmother for the lucky lady that he wants to marry. While HM probably would approve of someone that fits into the family based on personality, the courtiers and gov't certainly wouldn't approve on that alone. He's the future Monarch and it would seem most likely that they'd want someone with some breeding. It's sad that this is the way it's done because as we've seen, it hasn't been very successful for Charles, Anne or Andrew. As for Edward, he was very fortunate that he didn't need the approval of the gov't for his marriage.

As for the topic of real estate value...it definitely depends on location as to the market value of a home. I live on the east coast of Canada and things are still quite affordable. We're starting to see more and more million dollar asking prices but they aren't in the city centre, most are coastal properties. However when you start getting into places like Toronto and Montreal then you start getting less bang for your buck. I was in London back a few years ago and was shocked at the asking price for some of the small flats within the city....and we're just talking flats here not houses....close to a half million pounds!!!!

 

[inka7]

But the family house is in the country side. I assume this house is not as expensive as something of similar size in London for example.

It doesn't matter if she is rich or not. I read somewhere that her mom is pushy and on the one occasion at which the family was invited to a royal event, was chewing a chewing gum....It doesn't speak of sophisticated manners.

 

[Little_star]

But the family house is in the country side. I assume this house is not as expensive as something of similar size in London for example.

The papers in the past have quoted the house as being worth £1million which imo really isn't that much when you factor in the booming house market in the past and the location (Berkshire).

 

[Duke of Marmalade]

The papers in the past have quoted the house as being worth £1million which imo really isn't that much when you factor in the booming house market in the past and the location (Berkshire).

I agree with Little star, £1 Mio is not so much. The only way for the housing market was up and lots of people have made a fortune with buying and selling, property develloping.

The location can't be compared to London, an equivalent to a £1 Mio mansion in Berkshire would be kind of unaffordable in Central London.

From what we can read in the papers the Middletons are certainly well situated but I wouldn't call them "rich" judged on London benchmarks.

 

[Little_star]

To be honest I wouldn't class them as "rich" on any level.
Moreover if you were to compare Kate to most of the other people the Princes hang out then she is most definitely not rich.

 

[Menarue]

The name Middleton is not that common but there are quite a few and not all are related to THE Middleton family and from what I have heard although they are well off they are not from that family. I heard that the party favour business is an internet business and that the father has made a lot of money from it, but then what is a lot of money? No family seat there I think.

 

[inka7]

Is the house mortgaged?

I think she comes from a good family but is not as rich as Chelsy.

 

[Skydragon]

I'm not sure where the £1 million came from, as most properties with a few acres are worth up from the £3 million mark, even in Berks. I too would not class them above 'well off' and coming from a nice family, as opposed to 'good'.

 

[Little_star]

Seeing as I brought it up, I can remember reading several articles in the past (usually on internet forums) which said the family home was worth about £1million.

 

[Amelia]

I remember reading that as well, although it was a good 3/4 years ago now - I guess it could be worth more now or less depending on the house market at the moment.

 

[Little_star]

I actually think I read that at the time of the split, it wasn't 3/4 years ago I'm fairly sure of that.

The housing market is going downhill fast at the moment but it was still pretty strong about a year ago which is why the figure always stuck in my head; it never struck me as being that high.

 

[Amelia]

As far as I remember the first time I came across it was in a Hello magazine article on their graduation from St. Andrew's, they did sort of a biography on Kate and they mentioned that her parents were self-made and that they had a £1million house etc.

 

[Skydragon]

At a mere million, it would have to be a tatty 5 bed!

 

[Little_star]

A million pound house in the inflated proerty market of that period would not have been anything particularly special, especially when you factor in the location etc.

 

[TonyaR]

Here are links to two aerial photos of the Middleton family home. They are from the Daily Mail article that was printed in April when story broke about Prince William using the Middleton family property for helicopter training exercises.
http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa239/prettyBaby3000/MiddletonFamilyHome1.jpg
http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa239/prettyBaby3000/MiddletonFamilyHome2.jpg

It looks like a large and comfortable house. The article said the house has 5 bedrooms, and that the Middleton family owns 7 acres of property surrounding the house.

Whether it's worth more than 1 million pounds, I don't know since I don't know much about English property or what it costs to buy 7 acres.

 

[Skydragon]

Looking at that, mildly inflated prices or not, it is worth more than one million. These represent todays falling prices.
Berkshire Property - Houses and Flats for Sale in Berkshire

 

[muriel]

The Middletons seem to be a well off, self made bunch, having worked to get where hey have gotten to. They are by no means extra-ordinarily rich (dont expect to see them driving Bentley's, but maybe the odd Range Rover or Jaguar). The house seems nice, but not what one would call the home of the "upper classes." Having a £3-4m home in these days is really not that extra-ordinary!