Palo Alto’s Priciest Listing Has an 80-Foot Concrete Spine. The Owners Want to Be Closer to Their Daughter
They bought the lot for $7.1 million in 2000 and spent $20 million building a modern house that fits a Mediterranean neighborhood. Now they’re heading toward family, and the first job is letting go.
By Sean Anees Saifi · Capital Wealth · Published Friday, September 25, 2026 · Source: The Wall Street Journal, Friday, September 25, 2026 edition, whose market figures are the Thursday, September 24 close (Mansion)
Key Points
Tech entrepreneur and angel investor Asher Waldfogel, a co-founder of telecom-equipment company Redback Networks, and his wife, Helyn MacLean, have listed their Old Palo Alto home for $44 million, the most expensive listing in Palo Alto.
They bought the roughly 0.4-acre site for $7.1 million in 2000, demolished a circa-1930s Spanish Colonial, and spent $20 million over several years building the house, finished in 2005.
Architect Steven Ehrlich designed it to nod to the neighborhood’s Mediterranean style with stucco, mahogany and titanium-zinc cladding: 7,900 sq. ft., five bedrooms, four courtyards and a pool, with a two-story cast-concrete spine wall about 80 feet long.
They’re selling to be closer to their adult daughter on the East Coast, haven’t decided where they’ll move, and also have a home in Sun Valley, Idaho.
By our arithmetic, land plus construction came to about $27.1 million, before two decades of upkeep and taxes; an asking price isn’t a sale price.
$44M
asking price, Palo Alto’s most expensive listing
$7.1M
paid for the roughly 0.4-acre lot in 2000
$20M
spent over several years building the house
~80 ft
length of the two-story cast-concrete spine wall
The owners once worried a modern house would clash with Old Palo Alto. It’s now the priciest listing in town.
In one line: Moving to be near grown children is a life decision with a price tag attached, and the first line item, as this seller puts it, is letting go.
Asher Waldfogel has opinions about concrete. The spine of his Palo Alto house — a cast-in-place wall two stories tall and about 80 feet long — has a slightly unpredictable face, and he prefers it that way; perfect uniformity, in his view, is what plastic is for. He and his wife, Helyn MacLean, spent several years and $20 million building the place. Now they’re attempting something harder than pouring concrete: leaving it.
The couple had long dreamed of a modern house in Palo Alto but worried about clashing with the Mediterranean-style homes their neighborhood, Old Palo Alto, is known for. They bought a roughly 0.4-acre site for $7.1 million in 2000, tore down a circa-1930s Spanish Colonial and hired architect Steven Ehrlich, who paid homage to the neighbors with stucco, mahogany and titanium-zinc cladding. Finished in 2005, the house pinwheels around a central staircase: 7,900 square feet, five bedrooms, four courtyards and a pool.
It’s now listed at $44 million, the most expensive listing in Palo Alto, the Journal reports. The reason is family. Waldfogel, an angel investor who co-founded the telecom-equipment company Redback Networks, and MacLean, who previously worked in fundraising, want to be closer to their adult daughter on the East Coast. They haven’t decided where they’ll move, and they also have a home in Sun Valley, Idaho. For now, he said, they’re “just trying to emotionally let go and decide what to do next.”
Our read
That last sentence is the most useful thing in the listing, and it isn’t about real estate. Moving to be near grown children is one of the big next-chapter decisions (M6), and it can go sideways in familiar ways: the child takes a job in another city two years later, the new town’s costs surprise, or the friends left behind turn out to have been half the plan. The letting go and the deciding aren’t side chores; they’re the real work, and they deserve their own time before a sale sets the clock.
Some general homework helps. Ask the kids about their five-year plans before buying near them. Rent in the new place for a season before committing. And price the whole move, not just the house: state income and property taxes, insurance and health coverage — for anyone on Medicare, Advantage and Part D plans are regional, so a cross-country move generally means choosing new ones. The house math deserves humility, too: about $27.1 million into land and construction, by our arithmetic, before two decades of upkeep and taxes, and an asking price isn’t a sale price.
What It Means For Your Portfolio
Hold — let go first, then choose the where
No portfolio action — a move to be near family is a life decision with a price tag attached; do the letting go and the homework on the new place before a sale sets the clock.
General planning principles, not advice for anyone in particular. Before relocating to be near adult children, ask about their plans for the next five years, consider renting near them for a season, and price the full move — state taxes, insurance, housing and health coverage — not just the house you’re selling.
For anyone on Medicare, Advantage and Part D plans are regional, so a cross-country move generally means choosing new coverage, and moving out of a plan’s service area typically opens a special window to do it. Budget time for the goodbye, too; a house you built or raised a family in deserves a deliberate one.
