From a Wall Street Journal story by E.B. Solomont headlined “Fox News Host Bret Baier Asks $31.9 Million for Washington D.C. Home”:
A year after moving into the Washington, D.C., home he spent about $25 million to build, Fox News anchor Bret Baier said his family is relocating to Palm Beach, Fla., and he is putting the house on the market for $31.9 million
If it fetches its asking price, the home would set a record for the city, said listing agent Daniel Heider of TTR Sotheby’s International Realty, who is marketing the home with colleague Jaclyn Mason.
Baier is chief political anchor of Fox News, and anchor and executive editor of Special Report, a show on Fox. (Fox News parent Fox Corp. and Wall Street Journal parent News Corp share common ownership.)
He and his wife, Amy Baier, paid $5.4 million for the 1.5-acre Foxhall property in 2018, records show. After tearing down an older home with low ceilings, they said they spent about three years building a roughly 16,250-square-foot home with five bedrooms. The total cost of buying the land and building the house was about $30 million, he said.
The Baiers said they moved in around April 2022, but purchased a home in Palm Beach over the summer for $37 million. They visited Florida frequently during Covid and decided to move there full-time with their two teenage sons, one of whom is an avid golfer, Bret Baier said. “The move to Florida was a great adventure for our family, and the boys fell in love with it,” he said.
He said he commutes weekly to Washington, where he hosts his live shows, and he will look for a smaller place there.
Since the onset of the pandemic, Florida has seen an influx of wealthy residents drawn by the state’s mild weather and favorable tax policies for the wealthy amid the rise of remote work, driving sales prices to new heights.
The Baiers’ Foxhall property is gated and walled with a pool. While building it, the couple said they trucked in 300 tons of limestone and hundreds of trees, including mature Cypress trees. Amy Baier said because of her husband’s public-facing job, privacy and security were paramount. “We created this private place where we could escape to and not worry about any intruders,” she said.
Bret Baier, an avid golfer who played in college, said he spearheaded several features for the home—including a putting green with sand traps, a game room with a golf simulator and a bar in the main parlor. The property also has an indoor sports court for the couple’s sons. “We wanted to create a home where children would want to bring friends,” Amy Baier said.
The Baiers said they worked with designer Thomas Pheasant to design the house, which incorporates modern and classical finishes such as moldings and custom plasterwork. The double-height entry has an Art Deco-style marble floor with 12-foot black lacquered doors. The primary suite has a limestone terrace, two bathrooms and two dressing rooms.
The wood-and-brass dining room table, designed by Pheasant, seats 14 people and cost north of $150,000, they said. “It really does make the room,” said Bret Baier. “Everybody can get into the conversation.”
The couple said they have thrown parties at the house with both Republicans and Democrats attending, and hosted charity events there. Amy Baier is currently the chair of the Children’s National Hospital Foundation Board.
The current sales record in Washington was set by a circa-1810 mansion that sold for $24.56 million in 2007.
Heider said Washington’s luxury market, traditionally defined as sales above $3 million, is strong although the number of transactions above $10 million has crept down slightly. “There are still sales occurring,” he said, and prices haven’t dropped.
Speak Your Mind