This billionaire just bought the most expensive home in San Francisco

Laurene Powell Jobs, the billionaire widow of Apple visionary Steve Jobs, has set a new residential sale record for the city of San Francisco. 

Powell, 60, purchased a home in the Pacific Heights neighborhood for a cool $70 million, individuals with knowledge of the sale told the Wall Street Journal.  

The property wasn’t publicly listed for sale, but the sellers — Sloan Lindemann Barnett, the daughter of billionaire George L. Lindemann and Roger Barnett, chief executive of Shaklee, a health-supplement maker — initially wanted more than $100 million for it, sources told the Journal. It is sandwiched between homes owned by billionaire Larry Ellison and Apple product designer Jonathan Ive.  

The Barnetts purchased the residence in 2011, paying $33 million for the approximately 17,000 square-foot manse. Because it was off-market, there are neither listing details nor images, and it’s not clear as to whether they added to the footprint during their ownership. The residence was built in 1916.

The abode previously made headlines in 2021, when Architectural Digest featured the remodeled Spanish Renaissance Revival address in its January issue and noted that the home had “been described, with good reason, as the most beautiful house in America.” It got subsequent headlines in 2022, when the Washington Post reported that the Arch Digest profile had featured modified images that hid potentially stolen Cambodian relics.

Interior images of the decadently decorated palacio at the time showed white onyx-paneled walls, sweeping views of the San Francisco Bay and a two-story central courtyard dotted with pedestals, the Post then reported.

Aerial images of the house today show a sumptuous property with abundant outdoor space, including a yard, a roof deck and a second-floor balcony. 

The off-market purchase follows Powell Jobs’ purchase last month of a $94 million home in Malibu, adjacent to another home she already owns, according to the Journal. 

Before this most recent transaction, the record for priciest San Francisco home sale was held by a $43.5 million abode, also in Pacific Heights.