Inside a $55 million mansion in America’s richest zip code

The house is located on Tuscaloosa Street, on 1.42 acres. Newly built this year, it has nine bedrooms and 15 bathrooms.

But it will cost you $55 million.

“88 Tuscaloosa is truly the masterpiece, grand dame, or whatever you want to call it” of the upscale Northern California city, said Butch Hayes of Compass, one of the listing agents. luck.

Brian Cates/Courtesy of Compass

He added that it demonstrates a new way of living: a home and a resort. It has hand-painted Craftsman doors, a Bocci chandelier, and floor-to-ceiling windows.

If that doesn’t mean much to you, it has a movie theater with leather chairs, an equipped gym and spa, a tennis court, a swimming pool and an accompanying pool house, as well as a lounge with a small bar and pool table. Basically, everything you could want – all naturally surrounded by stunningly tall trees.

Brian Cates/Courtesy of Compass

Not only that, it’s located near some of the best private schools, the downtown area, and an exclusive club that everyone seems to belong to. It is not far from Silicon Valley and San Francisco.

“Everything is conducive to the lifestyle people expect at this price point,” said another listing agent, Omar Maysen, who also works for Compass.

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Brian Cates/Courtesy of Compass

“Lifestyle” is certainly a defining term throughout California. And in Southern California, the wealthy are desperate for it. “Bases,” rather than basements, is how the wealthy like to refer to them, Ernie Carswell, a luxury real estate agent with Douglas Elliman, told me earlier.

They feature billiards rooms, wine caves, bowling alleys, movie theaters, gyms, and spas — not much different from the luxury home we’re talking about.

This type of “ice house” also existed in London long before now. Perhaps Californians are inspired by architecture from abroad. A palace built by a billionaire, or “Versailles on a cliff,” as it is known Wall Street Journal Shoot itIt was recently listed for sale in San Diego for $108 million.

For its part, Atherton’s car has been on sale for about 30 days and has had about six offers so far.

The seller is actually a developer. His company did everything from the design to the construction itself, which is not the way things are usually done. He’s a tech entrepreneur as well.

Brian Cates/Courtesy of Compass

Hayes explained that this was a passion project for him. But it’s not easy to build in California, let alone Atherton, where it’s mostly zoned for single-family homes.

Atherton is actually home to a millionaire basketball star and a billionaire venture capitalist, among other elites, of course, who on two separate occasions opposed the change that was coming in the form of multifamily homes.

So the vendor who was a developer faced some challenges along the way. Maybe that’s part of the reason it’s priced this way. But paying that price gets you into a rich club, Hayes pointed out.

As it happens, supercar maker Ferrari has borrowed the house this weekend to hold an event for its top customers to showcase some hot rides. A stunning home filled with amazing cars – what could be better?

Brian Cates/Courtesy of Compass

The broader housing world has been turned upside down over the past two years or so by rising housing prices and mortgage interest rates. Sales have declined, to say the least. But according to Hayes, it could change and this house might be a sign.

“Atherton appears to be a pioneer of what is to come in the way of real estate,” he said. “It’s always been like this, we see the luxury market move first and then everything else follows. We’ve seen a lot of properties in Atherton come on the market, and it’s only in the last 30 days that they’ve started to move.”