I know for a fact she rented an apartment for several thousand dollars a month while they scoped out real estate. First, they bought a modest home by a multi-millionaire's standards near American University, then they bought into one of the richest prime real estate locations here in the city. They bought a house right off embassy row across from the Canadian Embassy very near to the Naval Observatory and the Vice President’s home.
They bought extravagantly by no little means.

I think before. These are the properties they invested in when he left office.

If he was having a hard time getting a mortgage then, he should have gone to Countrywide. His friends Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, and Barack Obama had been treated very nicely by Countrywide. People forget that the those three received the most cash to prop up the housing bubble. Before that, Clinton was #1.

At the time when the were moving to NY, I read criticism that they would not have qualified the for the mortgage on the expensive house they bought if it were for their political connections. They would have qualified for a nice home, but not the one they wanted.

They worked to pay off their debt. She has an interesting definition of work.