How much is the home where Amazon was born worth?
According to GeekWire, the house Amazon Founder Jeff Bezos rented in the mid-1990s when he started Cadabra, as the bookstore was known before changing its name to Amazon, is now on the market and listed for $1,488,888.
The Bellevue, Washington home features three bedrooms and 1.75 bathrooms and includes the oversized mailbox believed to be used by early employees and Bezos to accommodate the book catalogs they were receiving for the online bookstore, according to GeekWire’s reporting.
From the article:
The mailbox has no official historical designation, but the buyer, whomever it turns out to be, will be informed of its significance, listing agent Pat Sullivan of John L. Scott Real Estate assured GeekWire when reached via phone this afternoon.
“It is the very first Amazon address, and it always will be,” Sullivan said.
As tech journalists in the Seattle region, we’ve been keeping tabs on this house for years, given the historical significance, and we often cite it as inspiration for startups. After all, from this modest suburban home emerged one of the most valuable and influential companies in the world.
Then again, maybe modest isn’t the right word anymore. The asking price is more than double the $620,000 that the home fetched a decade ago. However, Sullivan said he didn’t put a premium on the price as a result of the history, and the listing price is in line with current market value. The growth of Amazon and the rebound of Microsoft have helped to create a surge in home values over the past several years in many parts of the Seattle region.
