--- title: Mark Zuckerberg Bought Four Houses Just to Tear Them Down description: The Facebook founder started buying parcels around his Palo Alto home to protect his privacy. authors: - name: Denver Nicks url: https://money.com/author/denver-nicks/ at_money_since: 2015 articles: 60 covers: - Housing - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit Cards - Economy and Politics - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Personal Finance - Pets - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes social: - https://x.com/DenverNicks - https://plus.google.com/105122198911201917932 former_staff: true published: '2016-05-24T18:47:01.000Z' modified: '2024-04-17T02:02:58.000Z' section: Housing tags: - facebook - Mark Zuckerberg - pubdesk - real estate word_count: 280 canonical: https://money.com/mark-zuckerberg-houses/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![Zuckerberg's 1% Loan Shows How Wealthy Stay Rich](https://img.money.com/2016/05/gettyimages-149365859.jpg) *Vegetation covers the front of Facebook Inc.'s Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg's house in Palo Alto, California, U.S. on Saturday, July 14, 2012.* In an effort to protect his privacy, Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg paid more than $30 million for four houses surrounding his Palo Alto home. According to an application filed Tuesday with city planners, he plans to demolish all four and build smaller houses in their place. Zuckerberg, whose wealth Forbes estimates at more than $50 billion, began buying the two two-story houses and two single-story houses around his property in 2012 after learning of a developer's plan to build a large house next door, the San Francisco *Chronicle* [reports](http://www.sfgate.com/technology/article/Zuckerberg-to-raze-4-houses-surrounding-Palo-Alto-7940437.php). He’s said to have paid more than $30 million in total for the properties—including one he bought for $14 million, even though it was valued at the time at $3.71 million. ***Read next: [The Best Free Thing To Do in Each State (and DC)](https://money.com/free-attractions-states-travel/)*** According to a letter to city planners from property managers working with the Facebook CEO, the Zuck plans to tear down the buildings and build three single-story houses and one two-story house in their place, all of which will reduce the footprint of structures on the properties by about 20%, [reports](http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_29920573/facebook-ceo-mark-zuckerberg-replacing-4-palo-alto) The San Jose *Mercury News*. It’s not known whether Zuckerberg will sell the new homes, rent them out, or simply use them himself. Zuckerberg is far from the first 1-percenter to buy a home in order to tear it down. After a protracted battle with local preservationists, tech titan Steve Jobs [was allowed to knock down](http://www.cbsnews.com/news/steve-jobs-gets-to-knock-down-his-house-after-all/) the Jackling House, a Jazz-Age property he purchased as a summer home in Woodside, Calif. ***Read next: [X-Men Ranked by How Much Money Their Mutations Would Make Them](https://money.com/x-men-apocalypse-money-mutations/)*** So far no neighbors have come forward to comment on Zuckerberg's application. ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/mark-zuckerberg-houses/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Housing", "item": "https://money.com/housing/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Home Buying", "item": "https://money.com/home-buying/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Mark Zuckerberg Bought Four Houses Just to Tear Them Down" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/mark-zuckerberg-houses/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/mark-zuckerberg-houses/", "name": "Mark Zuckerberg Bought Four Houses Just to Tear Them Down", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2016-05-24T18:47:01.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/mark-zuckerberg-houses/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/mark-zuckerberg-houses/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2024-04-17T02:02:58.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "Mark Zuckerberg Bought Four Houses Just to Tear Them Down", "articleSection": "Housing", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2016/05/gettyimages-149365859.jpg", "width": 4256, "height": 2832, "caption": "Zuckerberg's 1% Loan Shows How Wealthy Stay Rich" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Denver Nicks", "url": "https://money.com/author/denver-nicks/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/denver-nicks/#author", "image": "https://img.money.com/2012/09/09_1165862081.jpg?quality=85&w=640&h=640&crop=1", "sameAs": [ "https://x.com/DenverNicks", "https://plus.google.com/105122198911201917932" ] } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2016-05-24T18:47:01.000Z", "description": "The Facebook founder started buying parcels around his Palo Alto home to protect his privacy.", "abstract": "The Facebook founder started buying parcels around his Palo Alto home to protect his privacy.", "@id": "https://money.com/mark-zuckerberg-houses/", "inLanguage": "en-US", "dateModified": "2024-04-17T02:02:58.000Z", "wordCount": 280, "keywords": [ "facebook", "Mark Zuckerberg", "pubdesk", "real estate" ], "about": [ { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Housing in the United States", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Housing_in_the_United_States" ] }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Real estate", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_estate" ] } ] } ] } ```