I visited the billionaire hideaway of the Pacific Northwest and clocked 5 signs of extreme wealth and luxury

• Medina, Washington, a Seattle suburb, is one of the richest towns in the US.
• Some of the world’s wealthiest people have called Medina home, from Bill Gates to Jeff Bezos.
• I visited in May 2025 and spotted signs of ultra luxury, like hidden mansions and backyard yachts.

Some of the wealthiest people in the Pacific Northwest live in a 1.4-square-mile town on the shores of Lake Washington.

Their multimillion-dollar estates are nestled in pocket forests. Towering Douglas firs make it impossible to see their balconies and backyards as an onlooker. But if you venture through the woods to the shoreline, their yachts are in plain sight.

Medina is one of the wealthiest cities in Washington, and to me, it felt like an escape from reality.

With fewer than 3,000 residents, the town east of Seattle is small but mighty. Business Insider previously reported that Medina’s ZIP code is among the top 20 in the US for mean household income at $459,400, and nearly 96% of owner-occupied homes are worth $1 million or more.

I walked from the top to the bottom of Medina in May 2025. Along the way, I found five signs of over-the-top wealth and luxury in the affluent Seattle suburb.

Before my trip, I learned that some of the wealthiest people in the world have lived in Medina.

Bill Gates lives on a 10.5-acre estate in Medina. Gates bought the land between 1988 and 2009 and built a mansion complex with ultra-luxe features you wouldn’t expect, like a pool with an underwater sound system and a trampoline room.

Jeff Bezos lived in the area for over two decades before moving to Miami in 2023. He’s owned several Washington properties. In 2023, his Seattle-area real estate empire was worth about $190 million. He resided in both Medina and Hunts Point, a bordering 200-acre town.

Hunts Point is also home to the richest person in the state, Steve Ballmer, the former CEO of Microsoft and current owner of the Los Angeles Clippers, who is worth $153 billion, according to Forbes.

The vast majority of buildings I saw in Medina were mansions.

Medina is primarily residential. You won’t find strips of shops and restaurants there — that’s what Seattle is for. The 900-acre town has a few parks, a mini grocery store, and so many mansions.

The average home value in Medina is about $4.5 million, according to Zillow.

Extravagant estates dominate the neighborhoods. I didn’t see many modest homes during my trip.

Many of these estates were tucked away in between clusters of towering trees.

I’ve visited neighborhoods in wealth hubs around the US, and usually, I can get pretty good views of the most expensive homes on the block.

That wasn’t the case during my trip to Medina. There were some streetside houses, but many of the mansions were hidden between trees. I thought this gave the ultrawealthy privacy and seclusion from the world outside their gigantic estate.

Shoreline properties had yachts in their backyards.

Hiking to the shoreline in Fairweather Nature Preserve gave me decent views of expensive homes across the water in Hunts Point.

Several had ornately landscaped backyards that led down to what appeared to be private docks. All the houses I saw had boats, many of which were yachts.

I couldn’t help but picture myself rolling out of bed on a Sunday and walking just a few yards to my yacht while still in my pajamas.

The town had the most luxurious grocery store I’ve ever been to.

Kitchen & Market isn’t your typical errand stop. It’s a small, gourmet grocery store that feels like an upscale farmers market or an elevated bodega.

The employees greeted me like an incoming guest at a five-star hotel. They were so friendly and seemed genuinely delighted by my arrival as they handed me a free sample of the best tomato soup I’d ever had.

I wandered the few aisles and found locally sourced produce, artisan breads, elevated meal kits, and a grab-and-go station where I picked up a chicken salad sandwich and a bottle of lavender grapefruit juice for $15.

I walked down the road to Medina Beach Park to have a solo picnic by the water. When I bit into the sandwich, I couldn’t believe it wasn’t made to order. The ingredients felt crisp and fresh. I loved the juice’s tangy, floral flavor and hadn’t seen it at any grocery stores before. The pairing tasted like a $30 meal at a restaurant.

Full and quenched, I made my way back to Seattle. The cab ride back was only 20 minutes long.

I was in awe that Medina manages to feel like an idyllic village in the middle of nowhere while being so close to a major city.

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