#Sun Valley rumors swirling about new ‘neighbor’ Mark Zuckerberg

As Mark Zuckerberg fights off antitrust regulators in Washington, he meanwhile has been fighting a stubborn rumor in Sun Valley, Idaho — namely, that he’s building a house there.

Last week, even as the 37-year-old tech tycoon descended upon the posh resort for Allen & Co.’s “summer camp for billionaires,” a local developer told The Post he heard Zuckerberg was building a mountain getaway in an enclave nearby known as White Clouds.

The developer declined to specify the exact location, but he claimed he heard it straight from the mouths of contractors who were doing the work. Other residents eager to dish on Zuckerberg’s purported plans included the concierge of a local hotel and a family of three munching on pizza at a nearby restaurant.

In a statement to The Post, a Facebook spokesman said, “There’s no truth to this. Mark has not purchased nor is he building a home in Sun Valley.”

Local townsfolk — who are used to boasting about longtime neighbors including Arnold Schwarzenegger, Clint Eastwood and Tom Hanks — aren’t convinced. No one seemed able to point to the site, but five houses arguably large enough for a tech billionaire were going up in one White Clouds development.

Nevertheless, none of the builders would confirm that any of the sites were Zuckerberg’s. One foreman said he was working for a wealthy man from Portland, Ore. Another worker wiped his brow in the 90-degree heat and advised the reporter to go look for even bigger homes elsewhere.  

A real estate agent connected to White Clouds, which bills itself as “Sun Valley’s most exclusive luxury neighborhood,” said she was 99-percent certain Zuckerberg had not purchased one of the 12 properties she has been marketing.

But there are other properties available there — and the wealthy have ways to hide their tracks. Sun Valley real estate advisor Toby Eagan tells The Post that it’s common for high-profile deals to be “off market transactions,” meaning they aren’t posted on public listing services.

“Even if you know a person owns a property in Sun Valley, it’s often not going to be in their name,” Eagan said, while declining to opine on Zuckerberg.

Indeed, a review of parcels on the County Assessor’s website turned up no properties linked to Zuckerberg, but had countless properties owned by anonymous LLCs.

Of course, rumors of Zuckerberg and Sun Valley homes have popped up before.

During the last Allen & Co. conference in 2019 (the tech-and-media mogul powwow was cancelled last year due to the pandemic) a fly-fishing guide insisted to a Post reporter that Zuckerberg owned one of the mega mansions lining the Big Wood River where they were casting lines.