Podcaster Bobbi Althoff asked Mark Cuban for $5 million to buy a house. His response highlights housing affordability

Podcaster Bobbi Althoff asked Mark Cuban for $5 million to buy a house. His response highlights housing affordability

Victoria Vesovski

Sun, February 1, 2026 at 10:00 AM EST

7 min read

Mark Cuban on Bobbi Althoff's podcast. — Bobbi Althoff/YouTube

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Back in 2023, Mark Cuban found himself seated on a warehouse floor alongside viral sensation Bobbi Althoff as a guest on The Really Good Podcast (1).

During the 58-minute interview, Althoff used her awkward yet engaging tactics to get Cuban to open up about a range of topics, from the Mavericks to Shark Tank — and even asked him for $5 million to buy a home.

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“You could give me a billion dollars right now and it probably wouldn’t even affect you,” Althoff quipped, negotiating with Cuban. “Fine $5 million, we’ll go small. I could buy a house in Southern California.”

Despite finding common ground over their shared birthday and lactose intolerance, Cuban didn’t give in. He cautioned Althoff that even with a multimillion-dollar handout, California living would remain beyond her means.

“I would have given you $5 million for nothing,” the Shark Tank star replied.

Cuban explained to her why owning a house that expensive wouldn’t work out, even if he bought it for her.

Homeownership alternatives in Southern California and beyond

When the podcast initially aired back in 2023, the median sale price of a California home was $742,000, according to Redfin (2). Prices are now about 7% higher, with the median sale price nearing $800,000 — making California the most expensive place to buy a house in America (3).

Cuban emphasized the importance of considering the full financial picture when thinking about homeownership. While you may believe you can afford the initial down payment, there can be significant ongoing expenses associated with maintaining a property.

“You’d have to pay all those taxes,” said Cuban, nodding to the high property tax rates in California.

According to the California Association of Realtors November 2025 data, a minimum annual income of $223,600 is necessary to afford the costs associated with homeownership in the state.

Tap into rental homes, without the mortgage

Thankfully, there are ways you can make money on the current real estate market that don’t involve buying a home, paying property taxes or taking on the work of managing a rental property and tenants.

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Platforms like Arrived let you invest in shares of property for as little as $100.

Backed by world-class investors such as Jeff Bezos, Arrived’s easy-to-use platform offers SEC-qualified investments, including rental homes and vacation rentals. Arrived lets you buy stakes in rental properties, earn dividends and skip the responsibilities of property management.

Their flexible investment options allow both accredited and non-accredited investors to benefit from this inflation-hedging asset class with ease. You start by browsing vetted properties, then you simply select a property and choose the number of shares to buy.

Invest in institutional-quality real estate

If you are looking to make a larger investment, you could also leverage privately held real estate opportunities.

Now, accredited investors can tap into that same approach through platforms such as Lightstone DIRECT, giving you access to institutional-quality multifamily and industrial real estate — with a minimum investment of $100,000.

Founded in 1986 by David Lichtenstein, Lightstone Group is one of the largest privately held real estate investment firms in the U.S., with more than $12 billion in assets under management.

Over nearly four decades, their team has delivered strong, risk-adjusted performance across multiple market cycles — including a 27.6% historical net IRR and a 2.54x historical net equity multiple on realized investments since 2004.

With Lightstone DIRECT, you gain access to that proprietary deal flow.

Here’s the kicker: Lightstone invests at least 20% of its own capital in every deal — roughly four times the industry average. With skin in the game, the firm ensures its interests are directly aligned with those of its investors.

Read More: Approaching retirement with no savings? Don’t panic, you're not alone. Here are 6 easy ways you can catch up (and fast)

How would you invest a large cash windfall?

In classic Althoff fashion, she not only asked Cuban for $5 million, but she also pitched him on investing in her podcast.

“I don’t know that I’d invest in a podcast,” Cuban quipped.

Although Cuban was hesitant to jump into Althoff’s investment offer, he’s certainly not against diversifying his investments. According to his website, Cuban has invested in all sorts of goods and services — from NBA franchises to healthy bakeries (5).

Asset diversification can be a great way to protect your wealth. Often, when investors diversify, they’re looking for alternative assets that differ from the stock market.

That’s especially the case now, as fears over a potential AI bubble have some investors skittish about keeping the bulk of their money in the stock market.

On the Pioneers of AI podcast in November 2025, Cuban weighed in, saying: “I don’t think it’s a traditional stock market bubble.” Though he cautioned there may be smaller bubbles within the industry, saying that “to be a market leader, they may be overspending (6).”

If you’re mostly invested in the S&P 500, your portfolio is very vulnerable to those companies competing for the AI throne. Just five major AI companies — Amazon, Alphabet, Apple, Meta and Microsoft — account for a whopping 30% of the S&P 500, according to CNBC (7).

If any of those companies take a tumble, investors would see their portfolios suffer.

Invest in assets that don’t behave like stocks

At the Global Financial Leaders’ Investment Summit in November 2025, Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon said, “It’s likely there’ll be a 10 to 20% drawdown in equity markets sometime in the next 12 to 24 months.”

With that kind of a warning sign, diversification isn’t just smart — it’s essential.

One standout example: post-war and contemporary art, which outpaced the S&P 500 by 15% from 1995 to 2025 while showing near-zero correlation to traditional equities.

Until recently, this world was off-limits. Now, with Masterworks, you can buy fractional shares in multimillion-dollar works by icons like Banksy, Picasso and Basquiat. While art can be illiquid and typically requires a long-term hold, it offers unique portfolio diversification.

Masterworks has sold 25 artworks so far, yielding net annualized returns like 14.6%, 17.6% and 17.8%.*

Moneywise readers can get priority access to diversify with art: Skip the waitlist here.

Past performance is not indicative of future returns. Investing involves risk. See important Regulation A disclosures at Masterworks.com/cd

Podcaster Bobbi Althoff asked Mark Cuban for $5 million to buy a house. His response highlights housing affordability