Real Estate Industry News

The Silicon Valley estate of Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen sold this month for $35.3 million, a 15% discount off the asking price.

The Atherton, California, seven-bedroom home came on the market in October, a year after Allen’s death, priced at $41.5 million. Allen bought the newly built home in 2013 for $27 million. For pictures of the 21,000-square-foot interior, click here.

While the overall theme of the home is “California casual,” with lots of open spaces and blonde wood panelling, there’s one nod to tradition – a formal dining room with a fireplace. 

In addition, the home has a kitchen with two marble-topped islands. It’s adjacent to a sitting area with a vaulted ceiling and a breakfast nook with floor-to-ceiling windows that overlook the yard. 

There’s also a movie theater, a gym, a home office and an outdoor dining area with a wood-fired pizza oven. 

The two-acre lot is a mix of lawns, flower beds, woods, and there’s even a meadow. The grounds also hold a pool and two outdoor fireplaces. There are two separate garages with a total of five bays, as well as driveway parking for two dozen cars.

Allen was a boyhood friend of Bill Gates who convinced him to drop out of Harvard University to start Microsoft in 1975. Allen resigned from Microsoft in 1983 after being diagnosed with cancer that later went into remission. When the company went public in 1986, he became a billionaire. 

Allen’s net worth was about $20 billion when he died of cancer on October 15, 2018. He owned the NBA’s Portland Trail Blazers, the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks and a stake in the Seattle Sounders soccer team. He also invested in aerospace, filmmaking and real estate.

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