Why Exes Christina Hall and Tarek El Moussa Moved From a $6,000 a Month House to a $700 a Month Apartment
Christina Hall and Tarek El Moussa built an empire together with their hit show Flip or Flop, but the HGTV stars weren’t always as successful as they are now. There was a time when the couple had to move from a $6,000 a month house to a $700 a month apartment. Here’s why Hall and El Moussa had financial issues during their marriage and how money problems took a toll on their relationship.
Christina Hall and Tarek El Moussa moved from a $6,000 a month house to a $700 a month apartment while they were married
Tarek El Moussa and Christina Haack were together for years before starting their popular HGTV show Flip or Flop. They married in 2009 and had two children: a daughter named Taylor, born in 2010, and a son named Brayden, born in 2015.
Before making a name for themselves on reality television, the couple shared a real estate business. They were quite successful until 2008, when the Great Recession hit. The economic crisis forced Hall and El Moussa to move from a $6,000/month home into a $700/month apartment (per Redbook).
The couple realized they had to pivot, so they started flipping houses. They purchased homes at auctions, renovated them, and sold them for a profit. El Moussa recorded their first flip and sent the tape to HGTV. That audition tape helped them land Flip or Flop, which first aired in 2013 and ran for 10 seasons.
The couple separated in 2016 and were legally divorced in 2018. They continued filming Flip or Flop together throughout their divorce, but the show finally ended in March 2022, allowing Hall and El Moussa to part ways.
Tarek El Moussa said financial problems took a toll on his marriage to Christina Hall
HGTV star Tarek El Moussa got candid about his divorce from Christina Hall in an interview for The Dr. Drew Podcast. He said that stress from fame, illness, and financial problems all negatively impacted his marriage.
“Let’s just be honest, it was awful,” El Moussa told Dr. Drew (via E! News). “I mean, there was more PR about our divorce than any divorce I think I’ve ever seen. I mean, it was wild, on every single magazine, on every news outlet, it was just beyond me.”
The HGTV star mentioned financial struggles as a source of his trauma. “I’ve had a lot of different struggles in my life,” he said. “Financial struggles, personal struggles … just a whole lot of struggles, and I feel like I’m finally in a place … like I was so broken after everything I went through, literally broken, that I was devastated. I could barely walk, I was so broken as a person after going through all the trauma and the divorce and all these different things.”
The HGTV stars’ net worths are in the millions
Christina Hall and Tarek El Moussa don’t have to worry about downsizing to a $700 apartment now. According to Celebrity Net Worth, El Moussa’s net worth is about $15 million, while Hall’s net worth is around $25 million.
Most of the former couple’s wealth comes from starring on Flip or Flop. The show has been a massive success since it started airing in 2013, and it ran for 10 seasons.
After the divorce, Hall launched a spinoff show in 2019 titled Christina on the Coast. In 2020, El Moussa announced his spinoff series, Flipping 101 with Tarek El Moussa. And in 2022, Hall announced that she and her third husband, Josh Hall, started a production company and will co-produce another new show, Christina in the Country, with HGTV.
El Moussa has a new show coming to HGTV called The Flipping El Moussas, starring himself and his new wife, Heather Rae Young. Young will also continue starring in the upcoming seasons of Netflix’s Selling Sunset.
