But let's start with Bill Gates, ranked No. 1 on Forbes Billionaires' List and valued at $56 billion. His 66,000-square foot Medina, Wash., hillside compound features a "1,000-square foot dining room, domed roof library ... 60-foot pool and five acres of space." Not only that, according to Woolsey, Gates' home has secret passageways and antechambers, hidden bookshelves and a framed Harry Potter Junior Wizards official membership certificate.
Paul Allen, meanwhile, lives with his mom. To be clear, his Mercer Island, Wash., compound -- which includes his own 10,000-square foot mansion -- has a separate home for his mother. Apparently, she held him to his "one-day-when-I'm-a-billionaire" promise.
What's most interesting, however, is that Bill Gates, Berkshire Hathaway's (NYSE:BRK.A) guru Warren Buffett, Paul Allen and Dell Inc.'s (NASDAQ:DELL) CEO Michael Dell (whose mammoth home is shown below) all live in or near their hometowns. Buffett, in particular, has been living in the same gray stucco home in Omaha for the last 50 years. Which is great but, dude, time is running out.
For more on Gates' hidden bookshelves, Apple Inc.'s (NASDAQ:AAPL) Steve Jobs' demolition project and other billionaire estates, click the image below:
B. Brandon Barker is the author of the novel Operation EMU.
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