Bellevue home where Amazon was born listed for $1.5 million

Jeff Bezos’s former home—including its now-famous garage—is on the market

By Sarah Anne Lloyd@sarahannelloyd Feb 11, 2019, 3:44pm PST

The garage where Amazon began is visible at the home’s front door.

The story gets repeated in Seattle over and over again: When Jeff Bezos started retail giant Amazon, then Cadabra, in 1994, it was a small business operated out of his Bellevue garage. The rest is history. Bezos is the richest man in the entire world (and has much fancier digs) and Amazon is a massive corporation.

As Amazon grew, the house stuck around in Bellevue—and grew a little itself, with an early-2000s remodel that added a massive great room and redid the roof. Back in 1994, when Bezos was stockpiling books in the garage, it was valued at under $150,000. Now, it’s listed for $1.5 million, about as much money as Bezos accumulates in ten minutes.

The home was first built in 1954, and while it’s been updated to a more contemporary Craftsman lodge look with river-rock accents (popular in new homes around the time it was remodeled), its midcentury roots are still visible in the L-shaped layout and the configuration of the three bedrooms. While the soaring, exposed-pine ceiling with embedded skylights above the living room lends itself well to a midcentury vibe, that’s a newer addition.

Out back, the property is ready for better weather, with a large deck, a fire pit, and a hot tub.