JD & Usha Vance Live A Really Lavish Lifestyle

Vice President JD Vance has made a name for himself as a "pull yourself up by the bootstraps" kinda guy who hailed from very humble beginnings. In his memoir, "Hillbilly Elegy," he discusses his impoverished upbringing at length. "I didn't write this book because I've accomplished something extraordinary. I wrote this book because I've achieved something quite ordinary, which doesn't happen to most kids who grow up like me. You see, I grew up poor, in the Rust Belt, in an Ohio steel town that has been hemorrhaging jobs and hope for as long as I can remember," he reminisces about the tragic story of his and his sister's childhood in the confines of the book.

These days, however, "poor" or "humble" isn't exactly the adjective an average American citizen would probably use to describe the attorney and venture capitalist turned politician with an estimated net worth of $12 million, per Forbes. (JD's full transformation from Appalachian teen to "weird" politician has earned him a lot of haters, but it's certainly been lucrative.) Many might even argue that JD and his wife, Usha Vance, live quite lavishly compared to the very Americans that JD has attempted to align himself with over the course of his political career. Let's get into it, shall we?

Suffice to say, Vice President JD Vance has come a long way from the modest house he grew up in Middletown, Ohio. According to real estate records obtained by Realtor.com, upon graduating from law school at Yale, newlyweds JD and Usha Vance planted roots in Washington, D.C. when they plunked down a cool $590,000 for a three-bedroom townhouse in 2014. Then, in 2018, merely months after JD sold the film rights to his 2016 memoir "Hillbilly Elegy" to Imagine Entertainment for an undisclosed amount, the couple snagged a historic home in East Walnut Hills, Cincinnati. According to documents obtained by the Cincinnati Enquirer, the couple bought the house for a staggering $1.4 million. Rest assured, however, the Vance family wasn't done making real estate moves quite yet. 

In February 2023, JD and Usha shelled out $1.64 million for a 100-year-old farmhouse located in the Del Ray neighborhood of Alexandria, Virginia, per Realtor.com. Alas, in February 2025, only one month after taking up residence at the stately U.S. Naval Observatory, the vice president and second lady listed the Alexandria home for $1.69 million. According to records obtained by Forbes, the house was sold after only four days on the market at $170,000 above the initial asking price. The kicker? The buyer was none other than government contractor and lobbyist Christopher Garcia, who previously worked in the Commerce Department during President Donald Trump's first administration. Maybe all roads really do lead back to Trump?  

Perhaps one of the lesser-known things about JD Vance is his time working as a venture capitalist. Yep, that's right. After working as an attorney, but before throwing his hat in the ring for an Ohio Senate seat in 2021, he made a living investing in start-up businesses. "I mean, look, I wanted to make money — I'm not saying I'm anti-making money," he told The New York Times in October 2024 about the career move. 

During his time working as a venture capitalist, he hopped around from firm to firm, including Peter Thiel's venture fund Mithril Capital and Rise of the Rest, a fund headed up by Steve Case. Then, in 2019, Vance co-founded Narya Capital alongside Thiel, Eric Schmidt, and Marc Andreessen. He is still a shareholder in the company. Per the fund's official site, the early-stage venture firm is "focused on using technology and science to solve for the future." Its portfolio of investments runs the gamut of everything from the agricultural industry to biotech to defense and even financial services — a clear juxtaposition from the tale Vance once told about his time working as a venture capitalist, declaring, "How useful I've been on that front is probably debatable" (via Business Insider).

After Donald Trump tapped Vance as his running mate in July 2024, Vance was required to disclose his financial assets.  According to federal disclosure records obtained by CNN, the then-VP hopeful was sitting pretty with an eye-popping $4 to $11 million in assets, including a hefty Schwab brokerage account to the tune of $2.2 million to $7.5 million. Not too shabby, eh?

Second lady Usha Vance is no stranger to designer (read: expensive) clothing. In January, the second lady-elect showed up and showed out at the inauguration and all of the various pre- and post-festivities, sporting both custom and ready-to-wear outfits by luxury designers, including the likes of Oscar de la Renta, Gaurav Gupta, Sergio Hudson, and Reem Acra. Cha-ching! Since then, Usha has shown no signs of jumping off the designer brand train anytime soon. In April 2025, she stepped off Air Force Two in India wearing a red sleeveless dress with a high neckline by Saloni. Per the luxury designer's official website, comparable dresses retail for anywhere from $625 to $890.

Usha herself has confessed that her affinity for luxury brands is "definitely a new thing." In June 2025, Usha revealed during an appearance on "Citizen McCain with Meghan McCain" that, prior to becoming second lady, she never aspired to be "the most fashionable person out there," noting that before her new life in the political realm, she kept a "pretty small wardrobe." And while her closet now includes some big-time fashion designers, her version of working with a team of stylists is actually just a "text thread of friends," including her neighbor, a childhood friend, and one who also happens to work in the fashion industry. Is that what they call high-low fashion?!

JD Vance and Usha Vance are world-class travelers. The vice president and second lady have embarked on several major trips abroad, including sojourns to Paris and Munich in February 2025, Greenland in March, Italy and India in April, and the Cotswolds and Scotland in August. As reported by the Daily Mail, the UK visit included a stay at a manor house to the tune of £8,000 ($10,500) a week. Additionally, the Daily Record reported that the Vances' stay at a villa in Scotland cost a whopping £3,000 ($4,000) per night. 

Unfortunately, all of the luxury travel has earned the couple a fair amount of criticism. In August 2025, the Democratic National Committee War Room issued a statement wherein they scolded the VP for all of the trips he had taken since being sworn in. "JD Vance has gone on vacation at least once a month since he took office. ... It's clear Vance's loyalties lie with the ultra-wealthy he's been vacationing with — not with working Americans who are struggling under the Trump-Vance billionaire-first agenda."

Many netizens also think JD and Usha are getting too big for their britches. "We all really want to go to Hawaii at some point in the next couple of years. Hopefully, we can find some excuse as vice president to go," JD declared during an appearance on the "Katie Miller Pod" in August. The backlash was swift. "Seven vacations in and already scouting the next one, looks like JD is curating the perfect travel blog instead of the serving the office he's given," one X user quipped. Another wrote, "He's already got the Army Corps of Engineers working on lowering the height of the waves so the family can try surfing."