Mark Zuckerberg’s $7 million Palo Alto home
After three years he became the world’s youngest ever self-made billionaire, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg finally has a house to call his own. Valued at $13.5 billion, and with a persona made famous by the Oscar-winning film The Social Network, Zuckerberg recently bought a relatively uncostly $7 million property.
According to the Silicon Valley Mercury News, Zuckerberg has purchased a $7 million Palo Alto estate that features five bedrooms, five and a half baths, a banquet-size dining room, a music alcove and glassed-in porch. The restored historic Palo Alto abode encompasses 5,617 square feet on a 17,100 square-foot plot. The backyard has a saltwater pool, a spa, an outdoor gazebo with a wood-burning fireplace and a carport. The lot, located on Edgewood Drive in the Crescent Park neighborhood, is shielded from nosy neighbors and gawkers by a wall and citrus trees.
Mark Zuckerberg's $7 million Palo Alto home
Sources close to Facebook confirmed that Zuckerberg bought a house in Palo Alto, but declined to say which one. The real estate transaction did not close under Zuckerberg’s name. However, public records requests revealed a trail of clues leading to a property purchased for $7 million. Zuckerberg, 26, previously lived in a rental home in Palo Alto’s College Terrace neighborhood. His new home is located in the 1400 block of Edgewood Drive in Crescent Park, a 10-minute drive from what will soon be Facebook’s new corporate campus in Menlo Park. Mr Zuckerberg will share his new house with his girlfriend of seven years, Priscilla Chan, who some observers have speculated he could soon become engaged to.
San Francisco physician and Palo Alto pioneer Dr. William A. Newell originally built the home in 1866 as a Victorian cottage. Only the Juana Briones house retains older elements, according to a history of the property. In 1906, Dr. Alexander McIntyre rebuilt the home using original materials from the then-dilapidated house, which had been empty for 15 years after the Newells’ deaths. Then-State Senator and Assemblyman Marshall Black purchased the home in 1909. The home has been remodeled and expanded through the years and now contains 13 rooms. The two-story home was restored in 2007, according to sales information by Alain Pinel Realtor Sherry Bucolo.
Zuckerberg, who ranks 52nd on Forbes’ list of the World’s Billionaires, paid $1 million more than the previously listed asking price of $5.85 million. The $7 million paid is about what the home is valued in the expensive 94301 zip code. That might seem like a hefty price tag to many middle Americans, but it’s pee wee league among billionaires. Yuri Milner, a venture capital billionaire and Facebook investor, shelled out $100 million for an 11 acre, 25,000 square foot estate in the area earlier this year. In April, Rinat Akhmetov, Ukraine’s wealthiest billionaire, had snatched up a London penthouse for $221 million, the most ever paid for an apartment anywhere.
Mark Zuckerberg's $7 million Palo Alto home
