Facebook's Zuckerberg buys $7 million house
Celebrity renter is a renter no more. The new Palo Alto, Calif., estate has a privacy wall, a saltwater pool and a gazebo with a fireplace.
One of the nation's most famous celebrity renters has bought a home.
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg reportedly paid $7 million for a 5,617-square-foot home in Palo Alto, Calif., an easy commute to the new Facebook offices in Menlo Park – though not quite as close his previous rental home was.
Zuckerberg's new place has five bedrooms, five baths and two half-baths, a saltwater pool, a spa and a gazebo with a fireplace. You can read all the details and see photos here.
He paid considerably more than the $5.85 million asking price. Real estate is expensive in Palo Alto, the home of Stanford University. According to the real-estate website Trulia, the median sale price from January to March 2011 was $806,500 and the median asking price in the last week of April was $1.62 million.
The Facebook founder turns 27 this month, an age at which many people still rent their domiciles. He lives with his girlfriend, Priscilla Chan.
According to Palo Alto Online, the house is the second-oldest house in Palo Alto, though it has been extensively remodeled and added on to over the years. The last renovation was in 2007.
The house was built in 1866 as a Victorian cottage for Palo Alto pioneer Dr. William A. Newell. The house sat empty for 15 years after the Newells died, and Dr. Alexander McIntyre rebuilt it, using some of the original materials in 1906. State Sen. Marshall Black bought the house in 1909, then spent three years in prison for embezzlement.
The house is on a 17,117-foot lot surrounded by a wall, set back from the street with lots of trees. The estate was advertised as "offering the ultimate in privacy." Among the home's features are a home office with dual work stations and floor-to-ceiling windows.
The Los Angeles Times interviewed one of Zuckerberg's new neighbors, Kenneth Regenos, a retired aerospace engineer who has lived on the street for 45 years, who said, "We'll be happy to have him here." Neighbors are friendly, but not too friendly, he told the Times, saying the last block party was in 1976.
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jealousy and stupuidity dominates here--what a pity from religious people--slinging mud back and forth and alas, it will continue until the end of time. if you cannot have love for your fellow human being at least the minimum of decorum, respect for one another and tolerance for having different beliefs--something is wrong with your (pseudo) religions.
kudos to m zuckerberg and what he fancy doing with his money is his and only his business.
i wish you all peace,
the atheist
About Teresa Mears
Teresa Mears is a veteran journalist who has been interested in houses since her father took her to tax auctions to carry the cash at age 10. A former editor of The Miami Herald's Home & Design section, she lives in South Florida where, in addition to writing about real estate, she publishes Miami on the Cheap to help her neighbors adjust to the loss of 60% of their property value.
msn real estate is social
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