Mark Zuckerberg’s Billion-Dollar Life: A Look at His Mansion Collection
Written by
Kristopher Kane
Edited by
Joe Evans
Commitment to Our Readers
GOBankingRates' editorial team is committed to bringing you unbiased reviews and information. We use data-driven methodologies to evaluate financial products and services - our reviews and ratings are not influenced by advertisers. You can read more about our editorial guidelines and our products and services review methodology.
20 Years
Helping You Live Richer
Reviewed
by Experts
Trusted by
Millions of Readers
Mark Zuckerberg is worth about $180 billion, though that number fluctuates with the prices of the stocks, commodities and other assets the man doubtless owns. Suffice it to say, “He is very, very wealthy.”
With that kind of pocket change, the Meta’s (née Facebook) founder could buy pretty much any property he wanted. So what kind of real estate does one of the world’s richest men buy and what does someone like Zuckerberg look for in a home? Some of the answers might surprise you.
Keep reading for a look at some of the real estate the tech mogul is known to possess, including a sprawling “privacy compound” only a 10-minute drive from Meta HQ, not one but two Tahoe retreats, and a property in Kauai that some call a “nature preserve” and others call a “doomsday bunker.”
Home Is Where the Heart Is
Zuckerberg is known to spend the bulk of his time in a relatively modest home he purchased in 2011 for the “bargain” price of $7 million in Palo Alto, a short 3-mile drive from Meta’s HQ at the appropriately named “1 Hacker Park” Menlo Park address. The home, though since upgraded with many amenities, including a custom AI assistant whose function can only be guessed at, isn’t the highlight of this residence.
It’s that Zuckerberg, shortly after marrying Priscilla Chan, spent an additional $43 million on the four homes surrounding his initial purchase, presumably for privacy reasons. Though exact prices (and many of the details surrounding Zuck’s real estate deals) are difficult to determine with any degree of certainty, buying out the neighbors still cost Zuckerberg a fair chunk of change.
A Modest Vacation Home — or Two
Lake Tahoe is lovely at any time of the year, and it makes sense that Zuckerberg would want a place to escape the pressures of running one of the world’s biggest social media empires. What’s better than one lakeside Tahoe property? Two.
As evinced by his initial homestead purchase, Zuckerberg likes to buy multiple adjacent properties, precisely what he did when selecting his Tahoe retreat. The two estates, the Brushwood and the Carousel, respectively, purportedly set the Zuckerberg family back a cool $59 million in total.
Considering they’re both lakeside properties covering 10 acres of nearly pristine nature, that’s a bargain for anyone who can afford it. One even has a guest home bigger than many people’s houses, at a “modest” 2,293 square feet.
The Hawaii Hideout
Last but not least, the Zuckerberg family’s Hawaii property may be the strangest — and most expensive — of the billionaire’s residences. He’s known to own at least 1,200 acres of land on Kauai, the first of which (roughly half the property he’s now said to own there) was a 750-acre plot of land picked up for $100 million.
It’s got the usual Hawaii benefits, like gorgeous white-sand beaches, the ceaseless sound of a gently lapping surf and the kind of climate, flora, and fauna the island state is known for. He’s known to have added another 600 acres to his initial holdings in 2021 for the comparatively cheap price tag of $53 million, and the publicly stated reasons behind these purchases in paradise are “personal retreat and conservation.”
However, there may be far more to the story than the public’s been told.
Of course, security personnel are to be expected around the home of any billionaire’s family, but a never-ending caravan of trucks hauling in construction materials and what’s been reported as “hundreds of workers” is a little out of the ordinary.
Many workers are reportedly bound by nondisclosure agreements, and they notoriously won’t speak with reporters asking about what’s going on behind the six-foot tall walls that obstruct much of the property from view.
Planning documents are usually a matter of public record, and sources have uncovered blueprints that suggest the Zuckerberg property, known as Koolau Ranch, houses a 5,000-square-foot underground “shelter,” with electrical generators, ample supplies of food and water and (when factoring in the cost of the land purchased above what some are calling the “doomsday bunker), will end up costing upwards of $270 million.
That’s not exactly a drop in the bucket, even for a man worth $180 billion, but if you’ve got that kind of bankroll, why not be prepared for any eventuality?
More From GOBankingRates
