A French-inspired estate in Atherton that was custom-built for NFL legend Jerry Rice is back on the market, listed at $35 million, as reported by Athlon Sports on October 27, 2026. One point needs to be clear from the start: Rice is not the seller. He sold this home back in 2013, and it is the current owners who have now brought the property back to market at a price that says a great deal about how far Atherton real estate has travelled in the years since.
The listing is a reminder that some celebrity homes keep making news long after the celebrity has moved out. Rice designed and built this house at the height of his career, lived in it for about twelve years, and sold it for $9 million. The same property is now offered at nearly four times that figure — a jump driven less by the famous name attached to it and more by the town it sits in, where land values have climbed relentlessly.
Quick Facts
- Location: Atherton, California (no street address published)
- Current asking price: $35 million, as reported
- Built: 2001, custom-built for Jerry Rice
- Sold by Rice: 2013, for $9 million, to Peter and Susanna Pau, as reported
- Living space: 12,520 sq ft
- Bedrooms / Bathrooms: 6 bedroom suites, 11 bathrooms
- Grounds: 25-yard pool, putting green
- Notable feature: A gym that still holds Rice’s original workout equipment, as reported
The House: French-Inspired, Built to a Receiver’s Routine
Rice custom-built the home in 2001, choosing a French-inspired design rather than the glass-and-steel modernism that dominates so much of Silicon Valley’s high end. At 12,520 square feet, it is a substantial house by any measure: six bedroom suites and eleven bathrooms spread across a residence designed for both family life and large-scale entertaining.
The grounds carry the amenities expected at this level, including a 25-yard pool — a genuine lap pool rather than a decorative plunge pool — and a putting green. That pool is a detail that fits its original owner. Rice was famous throughout his career for an almost unmatched training discipline, and a house built around serious daily workouts was always part of the design brief.
That theme reaches its clearest expression indoors. As reported, the home’s gym still holds Rice’s original workout equipment — a rare case of a celebrity home keeping a working piece of its first owner’s daily life intact through a change of ownership. For a buyer, it is either a museum piece or a fully equipped gym with an unusual story attached; either way, it is the room that separates this listing from every other large house in town.
A Price Story in Four Chapters
The numbers attached to this house tell their own story. Rice had the home built in 2001 and, as reported, first tested the market in 2007 with an asking price of $22 million. The timing was unforgiving: the late-2000s downturn pushed the ask down over the following years, and by late 2012 it had fallen to $10.5 million. The house finally sold in 2013 for $9 million to Peter and Susanna Pau.
Set against that history, the current $35 million listing is striking. It is roughly four times the 2013 sale price and well above the $22 million Rice himself asked in 2007, at what was then a market peak. Part of that rise is the house itself — a large, custom estate in a town where new construction of this scale is difficult — but most of it is Atherton. Celebrity estates elsewhere have followed a similar script of a long market run ending well below the original ask, as the Hulk Hogan Clearwater mansion sale showed; this listing is aiming for the opposite ending, priced on land value and scarcity rather than on patience.
Whether the market agrees is an open question. A $35 million ask is an opening position, and the property’s own history — six years on and off the market before its 2013 sale — is a reminder that even exceptional houses in exceptional towns can take time to find their buyer.
Rice’s Years in Atherton
Rice built the house in 2001, near the end of a career that had already secured his place among the greatest players in NFL history. He lived in the Atherton home for about twelve years, a period that covered the final chapter of his playing days and the beginning of his life after football. The house was, by the accounts attached to it over the years, a working home as much as a showpiece — the gym and the lap pool were not decoration but part of the routine that kept him playing at the highest level into his forties.
That association is now the listing’s quiet selling point. The current owners are not selling a house Rice happens to have owned briefly; they are selling the home he commissioned, designed around his habits, and lived in for more than a decade. Provenance of that depth is hard to manufacture, and in the top tier of the market it has real value.
What a $35M Ask Says About Atherton
Atherton, a small residential town in San Mateo County between San Francisco and Silicon Valley, is routinely counted among the most expensive ZIP codes in the United States. Its appeal is a particular combination: large, private lots, mature trees, no commercial development to speak of, and an easy commute to the headquarters of the technology industry. Houses here rarely trade on square-footage math alone; they trade on land, privacy and the difficulty of building anything comparable nearby.
Seen in that light, the $35 million figure is less a bet on a football name than a statement about where Atherton’s ceiling now sits. A 12,520 sq ft estate on a generous lot, custom-built and held by the same owners since 2013, is exactly the kind of property the town produces very few of. Homes with a genuine story attached — much like Elvis Presley’s Graceland, which became inseparable from its owner’s legacy — tend to hold attention long after they change hands, and this one carries both the story and the location.
Key Features
- 12,520 sq ft French-inspired estate, custom-built in 2001
- 6 bedroom suites and 11 bathrooms
- 25-yard lap pool and a putting green
- Gym that still holds Jerry Rice’s original workout equipment, as reported
- Owned by Rice for about 12 years; sold by him in 2013 for $9 million
- Now listed at $35 million by the current owners, as reported
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Jerry Rice selling his Atherton house?
No. Rice sold the home in 2013 for $9 million, as reported. The current listing at $35 million is by the present owners, Peter and Susanna Pau, who bought it from him. It is a former Rice home being re-listed, not a sale by Rice himself.
How much is Jerry Rice’s former Atherton estate listed for?
As reported by Athlon Sports on October 27, 2026, the estate is listed at $35 million.
When did Jerry Rice live in the Atherton house?
Rice custom-built the home in 2001 and lived there for about twelve years, until its sale in 2013.
What features does the Atherton estate have?
As reported, the 12,520 sq ft French-inspired home has 6 bedroom suites and 11 bathrooms, a 25-yard pool, a putting green, and a gym that still contains Rice’s original workout equipment.
Why did the house sell for only $9 million in 2013?
The property had a long route to that sale. It was first listed in 2007 at $22 million, as reported, and the asking price was reduced over the following years — to $10.5 million by late 2012 — before it sold in 2013 for $9 million, in a market still recovering from the late-2000s downturn.
Where in Atherton is the house located?
The estate is in Atherton, California, in San Mateo County. In line with privacy practice for residential properties, no exact street address is published here.
