Rich Barton
The lights were dimmed. Soft music played in the background as Dan Levy, clad in paisley pajamas, parted his lips and tossed his head. “I need a new fantasy,” he moaned.
“Are you in your 30s? You need something new,” a satin-clad woman purred in reply. “The pleasure you once got from sex now comes from looking at other people’s houses. You need Zillow.”
Rich Barton’s company had made it to “Saturday Night Live,” in a skit that went viral. Acknowledging the pop culture milestone, Barton tweeted: “Wait. Have we been marketing @zillow wrong all these years???”
Reply
Amazon s Jeff Bezos speaks at the Washington Convention Center, May 9, 2019. Bezos handily made the list, but he s not Washington s only billionaire by a long shot. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON The coronavirus has wreaked havoc on the U.S. economy, yet billionaires in Washington and across the globe are significantly wealthier than they were a year ago, according to this year s recently released Forbes World s Billionaires List.
The number of billionaires on Forbes 35th annual list jumped to an unprecedented 2,755 people, 660 more than a year ago. Altogether, they are worth $13.1 trillion, up from $8 trillion in 2020.
Among those on the list, 86 percent are richer today than they were a year ago.
Inman Connect
Forbes has released its much-anticipated annual Billionaires’ List, which featured more than 200 real estate executives from across the globe. Eight new real estate billionaires made their debuts this year, including Zillow co-founders Rich Barton and Lloyd Frink, and eXp World Holdings founder and CEO Glenn Sanford.
Rich Barton
Barton, Frink and Sanford have net worths of $2.2 billion, $1.4 billion and $1.8 billion, respectively. California-based commercial real estate executive Donald Bren nabbed the title of the United State’s wealthiest real estate baron with a net worth of $15.3 billion.
Although
Forbes is just now recognizing Barton and Sanford’s billionaire status, Barton entered the billionaires’ club in February 2020 after a stellar fourth-quarter 2019 earnings report catapulted Zillow Group’s stock above $64 per share.
Zillow Cofounders Debut On Forbes Billionaires List Amid White-Hot Residential Market
Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg
Zillow cofounders Rich Barton and Lloyd Frink debuted on the Forbes Billionaires list on Tuesday following a heady year both for their company and the broader residential real estate market. Barton, 53, joins the rankings with a net worth of $2.2 billion and Frink, 56, with $1.4 billion. They are among five U.S. real estate billionaires to join the list for the first time.
A spokesperson for Zillow declined to comment on the news.
In the 12 months ending March 6, when
Forbes finalized the rankings, shares of the publicly traded real estate marketplace nearly tripled. The rise was spurred by a dramatic spike in demand for housing, which sent median American home prices soaring 10% over the past year, according to CoreLogic, inflated by low inventory, rock-bottom interest rates and a spike in activity driven by prospective buyers fleeing cities and seeking more space i
Chinese And Hong Kong Billionaires On Top As Global Real Estate Fortunes Surge $151 Billion
David Wong/South China Morning Post via Getty Images
The world’s real estate billionaires collectively added $151 billion to their fortunes in the past year, driven by a spike in Asian markets, according to the 2021
Forbes Billionaires rankings. The 215 real estate moguls have a combined net worth of more than $800 billion and represent about 8% of the total individuals on the list. Only 30 saw a net worth drop over the last year.
The six richest are all citizens of either China or Hong Kong, including Hong Kong’s Lee Shau-kee, 93, the world’s richest real estate tycoon, with a $31.7 billion fortune. Lee controls publicly traded Henderson Land Development, which builds residential properties and marquee commercial projects, like the World Financial Center in Beijing and the International Finance Centre complex in Hong Kong.