Jan. 9: Kate Middleton was born today and taken home to this very middle class duplex

Ilyce R. Glink
·Yahoo! Homes Contributor

Kate Middleton turns 32 today, and will be spending the day with family and friends at Kensington Palace, according to those sources that spill all the beans to gossip magazines.

Kensington Palace is a far cry from the home where Kate spent her earliest birthdays, a small Victorian duplex (or a semi, as it’s known in England) in Berkshire.

The home features four bedrooms, one bathroom, cream-and-black tiled kitchen, two sitting rooms, play room, fireplace, shed and sprawling backyard. Apparently, Kate, as the oldest in the family, had a bedroom on the second floor along with her parents. Her siblings, Pippa and James, each had bedrooms with sloping roofs and tiny windows up on the third floor, according to the Daily Mail.

The future Princess Kate lived in the home until she was 13, except for a brief stint when her parents worked in Amman, Jordan from May 1984 to September 1986. They sold the home in 1995 for £185,000, or about $260,000. Since the Middletons, the home has gone through two other owners before it was put on the market in early spring 2011—just before the Royal Wedding.

The home certainly looks a little worn, and a little cramped, particularly when compared to the literal palaces she lives in today, or even Bucklebury Manor, the multi-million dollar large estate where her parents now live.

The home was eventually auctioned off on June 3, 2011, and although it attracted attentions from international tycoons and billionaires, it was ultimately picked up by two local teachers for £485,000, or about $800,000. They claimed that the “Middleton factor” did not influence them at all, and they originally had no idea it was Kate’s childhood home—apparently the couple only wanted the home as a place to live with their growing family.

Of course, it has to be a little fun to say you live in the childhood home of the world’s most famous princess.

Ilyce Glink is an award-winning, nationally syndicated real estate columnist, blogger and radio talk show host, and managing editor of the Equifax Finance Blog. Follow her on Twitter @Glink.