A 12-acre estate in Hillsborough, Calif., has sold for $70 million, doubling the exclusive Peninsula town’s previous price record, to a buyer who works in the artificial intelligence industry, according to reporting confirmed Aug. 7. The sale ranks as the highest-priced Northern California home transaction of 2026.
The property, known as Villa de Verano, sits at 3000 Ralston Ave. and was designed as a Lake Como-inspired compound, according to earlier reporting on the listing. The estate spans a 12,000-square-foot main residence with six bedrooms and 12 bathrooms, plus a sports pavilion and a separate guest house. Grounds include a sunken tennis court, pickleball and volleyball courts, golf facilities, a pool, a 150-seat amphitheater and a belvedere overlooking a reflecting pond.
“There are three structures on the property — there’s a main residence, sports pavilion, [and] a guest house structure,” said listing agent Jenn Gilson of Golden Gate Sotheby’s International Realty. The estate took roughly six years to develop and involved 110 subcontractors, some brought in from Europe for specialized work, before it was ready for sale earlier this year.
A record more than doubled
The $70 million sale price more than doubles Hillsborough’s previous home sale record of $35 million, set in 2022. The property had originally been listed with an asking price near $88 million before settling at $70 million, reflecting a broader pattern in the ultra-luxury tier where headline asking prices often get negotiated down significantly even on trophy properties.
The buyer’s identity has not been publicly disclosed, but Gilson said the purchaser works in artificial intelligence and specifically wanted a property within reach of San Francisco International Airport, San Francisco and Silicon Valley — a positioning that put Hillsborough, long favored by Peninsula tech wealth for its large lots and privacy, ahead of competing enclaves.
What it means
Verified facts: the $70 million transaction is confirmed as Hillsborough’s new price record and the largest known Northern California home sale so far in 2026, more than double the town’s previous mark.
RealtyWire analysis: the sale is a fresh data point in how AI-industry wealth is reshaping the top of the Bay Area luxury market, even as Miami has overtaken New York and the Bay Area as the top ultra-luxury home market nationally by transaction volume. It also stands in contrast to Austin, where luxury home prices have posted the steepest drop in the nation, underscoring how uneven the U.S. luxury market has become depending on which industry is generating the wealth buying into a given metro.
What to watch: whether more AI-wealth-driven trophy sales follow in Hillsborough and other Peninsula enclaves this year, and whether Villa de Verano’s final price becomes the new benchmark comparable brokers cite in future listings.
