The 8 Houses Owned by the McCains

Republican Presidential hopeful John McCain was asked Wednesday by a reporter from Politico how many houses he owned. McCain wasn’t sure.

“I think — I’ll have my staff get to you,” McCain reportedly said in the interview in Las Cruces, N.M. “It’s condominiums where — I’ll have them get to you.”

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama jumped on McCain’s statement and almost immediately turned it into a campaign attack. McCain’s camp responded with a responding attack, according to CBS News.

All of which is just more politics as usual. What everyone really wants to know is: How many houses does John McCain own?

At first, the answer was seven, according to PolitiFact, part of the Web site of the St. Petersburg Times newspaper in Florida.  

Later, Politico.com (who started the whole thing) came out with another story saying that McCain’s family owns eight homes. The story said that perhaps McCain was unclear on how many homes they own because John McCain doesn’t own ANY of the homes. The houses are owned by McCain’s wife, Cindy (who chairs a very profitable beer distributorship founded by her father), her children, their trusts or companies Cindy controls.

The new story says five of the properties were bought between 2004 and this February, for a total of $11 million.

So, barring the discovery of any more houses, the eight homes owned by the McCain family are:

1. A creekside ranch near Sedona, Ariz., the largest home, on more than six acres. Politifact cites records that show the property includes three houses and is worth about $1.1 million. The owner is Cindy McCain’s family trust.

2. A three-bedroom condo in Arlington, Va., worth $847,800 according to PolitiFact. 

3. A condo in La Jolla, Calif., that overlooks the Pacific Ocean and is worth more than $1 million and is home to Cindy McCain’s elderly aunt.

4. A 6,600-square-foot Phoenix condo that is the McCains’ primary residence, bought in 2006 for $4.7 million.

5. A second condo in the same building, for $830,000, bought by a corporation run by Cindy McCain.

6. A three-bedroom loft condo, also in Phoenix, for their daughter Meghan. They paid $700,000 for that, Politico says, but it is now for sale for $730,000.

7 & 8. Two condos in Coronado, Calif., an affluent suburb of San Diego, for $4.7 million. The condos were purchased by another family corporation of Cindy McCain’s.

For more detail on the houses, go to the story at Politico.com.