Jeff Bezos Rented an $890/Month Home When He Launched Amazon — Now He Could Blow $890 Ever

September 26, 2025

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Everyone knows Amazon started in a garage. What most people miss is that the garage was part of a rental.

In 1994, Jeff Bezos and then-wife MacKenzie Scott were paying $890 a month for a modest house in Bellevue, Washington. According to The New York Post, they didn’t own the place—they leased it. The garage that launched Amazon wasn’t attached to a tech compound or a luxury estate. It was borrowed space, at a borrowed address, for a company that would go on to reshape the global economy.

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That house has since been gutted and rebuilt. The original garage is gone, and so is the look of the place. But the price—$890—still stands out, especially when you line it up against where Bezos lives today. That same rental home eventually sold for $1.52 million in 2019 and was listed again in 2024 for $2.28 million.

He doesn’t rent anymore.

He now owns three properties on Indian Creek Island in Miami, one of the most exclusive residential areas in the country. He paid $68 million for the first, $79 million for the second, and picked up a third for $90 million to expand the lot. The island has fewer than 40 homes and its own police force.

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That’s just Florida. He also owns a massive estate in Beverly Hills. A multi-level penthouse in Manhattan. A waterfront property in Medina, Washington. And a Texas ranch that serves as the launch site for his aerospace company, Blue Origin. The man who once paid $890 in rent now owns property in some of the most expensive zip codes in the country.

Bezos’s current net worth is estimated at $231.3 billion, according to Forbes. If he spent $890 every single minute from September 26 through the end of the year—roughly 139,679 minutes—he would burn through about $124.3 million. Subtract that from his total net worth, and he’d still have $231.17 billion left. That rent check, once a monthly burden, wouldn’t even register.

For anyone who doesn’t have beachfront teardown money, there are still ways to start building wealth through real estate. Arrived —a platform he backs himself— lets investors buy fractional shares of rental homes starting at just $100. You don’t need to be a landlord or qualify for a jumbo loan. You invest. You collect income. You start building ownership instead of sending rent into a void.

Bezos didn’t launch Amazon from a mansion. He launched it as a renter. No equity. No land. Just a lease, a garage, and an idea. And that was enough.

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This article Jeff Bezos Rented an $890/Month Home When He Launched Amazon — Now He Could Blow $890 Every Minute Through New Year’s and Still Have $231 Billion Left originally appeared on Benzinga.com

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