Have you
checked the newest “Forbes 400: The Full List of The Richest People in America”
yet?
Surprise,
Bill Gates, with a net worth of $81 billion, is ranked No. 1 for the 23rd year
running. Meanwhile, his friend Warren Buffett fell to third place for the first
time in 15 years with a net worth of $65.5 billion.
Thanks to
soaring stock prices of hot tech firms, CEOs at the helm of those companies
seem to have been accumulating wealth at a much faster pace than others.
Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos gained $20 billion to boost his net worth to $67
billion, making him the second-richest person in the U.S.
Facebook CEO
Mark Zuckerberg jumped into fourth place, his highest rank ever, with a net
worth of $55.5 billion. However, Oracle founder Larry Ellison landed at No. 5
for the first time since 2007. His net worth is $49.3 billion
Standing on
the No. 6 spot is former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, CEO of the
eponymous firm Bloomberg L.P., who has a net worth of $45 billion.
These six
richest multi-billionaires have a combined $363.3 billion at their withdrawal,
most of which is still held as stakes in the companies they founded. However,
part of their fortune is vested in real estate. Mr. Gates, for one, owns a
Washington mansion worth about $170 million, several horse ranches across the
U.S. and shares in some luxury hotel chains through his private investment
firm, Cascade.
Here, take a
look at the residences the six richest moguls call home:
1. Bill Gates
Worth: $81 billion
Home: Medina, Washington
Worth: $81 billion
Home: Medina, Washington
Mr. Gates,
60, spends most of his time at his 66,000-square-foot Medina, Washington,
mansion, nicknamed Xanadu 2.0 after the title character’s estate in Citizen
Kane. The mansion overlooks Lake Washington. It took Mr. Gates seven years and
$63.2 million to build this house, which is filled with lots of high-tech
features. He purchased the lot for $2 million in 1988, but it’s now worth an
estimated $170 million, according to public records.
2. Jeff Bezos
Worth: $67 billion
Home: Medina, Washington
Worth: $67 billion
Home: Medina, Washington
Mr. Bezos,
52, in the process of building his e-commerce empire, scooped up a vast amount
of real properties over the years, earning him the No. 26 spot on The Land
Report’s list of America’s largest landowners last year. In terms of
residences, he has a 165,000-acre ranch in West Texas, a waterfront house in
Washington state, three linked apartments in Manhattan’s Century Tower, and a
12,000-square-foot Beverly Hills estate that boasts Tom Cruise as a neighbor,
according to Forbes.
His home at
Medina, Washington, close to Amazon’s headquarters, boasts 5.35 acres and about
29,000 square-foot of living space. Aside from the main home, there’s also a
caretaker’s cottage and a 4,500-square-foot boathouse on Lake Washington.
3. Warren Buffett
Worth: $65.5 billion
Home: Omaha, Nebraska
Worth: $65.5 billion
Home: Omaha, Nebraska
Although the
shrewdest investor on earth holds multiple real estate investments, Mr.
Buffett, 86, is known for living humbly.
His home
sits on a corner in Omaha, Nebraska, which he bought in 1958 for $31,500. Mr.
Buffett has lived there ever since. The house, originally built in 1921,
underwent several expansions to make it a cozy and comfortable
6,500-square-foot home for the man who has a net worth of over $65.5 billion.
4. Mark Zuckerberg
Worth: $55.5 billion
Home: Palo Alto, California
Worth: $55.5 billion
Home: Palo Alto, California
The youngest
richest entrepreneur docks most of his wealth in schools, health and other
philanthropies. His real estate portfolio include his home in Palo Alto and a
9.9-million pied-a-terre near Dolores Park in San Francisco.
Mr.
Zuckerberg, 32, purchased his first Craftsman-style 5,000-square-foot home in
Palo Alto in 2011 for $7 million. He snapped up four of the houses surrounding
his home in the following years for about $43.8 million to better keep his
privacy. But his plan to tear down and rebuild those four homes has been
stalled.
5. Larry Ellison
Worth: $49.3 billion
Home: Woodside, California
Worth: $49.3 billion
Home: Woodside, California
Oracle
executive chairman Larry Ellison, 72, has an extensive real estate portfolio.
He has bought up large parts of whole neighborhoods in Malibu and around Lake
Tahoe. He owns a $70-million Beechwood Mansion in Newport, Rhode Island; a
garden villa in Kyoto, Japan; and 98% of the land of Lanai, Hawaii’s
sixth-largest island, which he purchased in 2012 for $500 million, according to
published reports.
His estate
in Woodside, California, with an estimated value of $110 million, is modeled
after 16th-century Japanese architecture, complete with a man-made 2.3-acre
lake.
6. Michael Bloomberg
Worth: $45 billion
Home: Manhattan, New York
Worth: $45 billion
Home: Manhattan, New York
Former New
York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, 74, has more than a dozen of properties
worldwide. He spends most of his time at his Upper Estate Side townhouse, but
he also owns estates in the Hamptons in New York, as well as in London,
Bermuda, Colorado and Florida.
Mr.
Bloomberg’s townhouse, located at 17 East 79th St., spans five stories with a
limestone exterior. During his three terms as mayor, Mr. Bloomberg lived in the
townhouse instead of Gracie Mansion. However, he apparently has a plan to turn
it into a mega-mansion. Since 1989, he has been gradually buying up units at 19
East 79th St., the townhouse co-op that’s right next door to his current
residence. Out of the six units in the white 1880 Greek-revival-style building,
Bloomberg now owns five of them, according to The New York Observer.
Maryanne
Trump Barry, former federal appeals court judge and the eldest sister of
President Donald Trump, has found a buyer for her $23.9 million Palm Beach
mansion.
The
8,270-square-foot home is pending sale as of Tuesday, according to listing
records.
Built in
1956, the eight-bedroom home hit the market in December for $22.9 million, and
the price was raised to $23.9 million later the same month, listing records
show.
The house
has a formal living room, a sunroom, a library, an oceanfront balcony, a patio
and a pool, according to the listing with Christian Angle of Christian Angle
Real Estate. The brokerage did not immediately respond to request for comment.
Ms. Barry,
80, purchased the home—which comes with roughly 194 feet of ocean frontage—in
2004 for $11.5 million and owns it through a trust, records with PropertyShark
show.
The identity
of the buyer and the final sale price are not yet available.
Ms. Barry is
an attorney and inactive senior circuit judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for
the Third Circuit, which has jurisdiction over Delaware, New Jersey and
Pennsylvania. She took inactive senior status in February 2017. Ms.
Barry could not be reached for comment.
The property
is right across the street from her brother’s Mar-a-Lago resort—dubbed the
“winter White House"–and directly opposite a mansion belonging to Mr.
Trump, property records show. A second home owned by Mr. Trump is close by too,
records show.

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