Bill Gates Continues Sell-Off of Seattle-Area Homes

Bill Gates has seemingly found a buyer for another piece of his compound on Lake Washington.

The billionaire Microsoft founder listed a midcentury house next to his 66,000-square-foot lakeside mansion in Medina earlier this month for nearly $4.8 million. A week later, on Feb. 11, the house on Gates’ Xanadu 2.0 estate went into contract for an undisclosed price, Mansion Global reported.

The home spans 2,780 square feet and was purchased by Gates in 1995 for $1 million, per Architectural Digest. Gates began assembling his 66,000-square-foot Xanadu 2.0 compound in the 1980s and purchasing surrounding properties, including this one, over the subsequent decade.

The house has undergone several renovations over the years, including the addition of a deck, according to Mansion Global. The home was constructed in 1953 and last renovated in 2001. The manse has four bedrooms and two and a half bathrooms, along with views of Lake Washington, the Olympic Mountains and the Seattle skyline, as well as multiple patios and a deck that extends into the woods. The kitchen opens up to a covered deck, the living room boasts a fireplace and the primary bedroom has its own balcony with water views. The home’s lower level has full-sized sliding doors that open up to a yard.

After filing for divorce from Melinda Gates in 2021, the tech mogul stayed at the main house with no plans to move. “My sisters have downsized. I can’t,” he said on the “Today” show last year. “I like the houses I have. My kids like to come back. That is a luxury.”

Gates has been paring down his property holdings at the estate in recent years. In 2024, Gates sold another home on the 73rd Avenue Northeast estate for nearly $4.9 million. His reasoning for trimming his portfolio isn’t clear, especially given his opposition to downsizing as recently as last year.

Gates’ main home is now believed to be worth $130 million, according to Fortune. The property features seven bedrooms, six kitchens, 24 bathrooms, and six fireplaces. It also has a private library, theater room, sauna, party space, steam room, separate men’s and women’s lockers, a trampoline room with a 20-foot ceiling, offices, outdoor sports courts and a 17-by-60-foot swimming pool that has its own underwater music system, per Realtor.com.— Chris Malone Méndez