After hitting the market Jan. 16 for nearly $6.3 million, a sprawling New Mexico estate that was long home to two-time Oscar-winning actor Gene Hackman and his wife Betsy Arakawa, a classical pianist, has already accepted a contingent offer to be sold. Tara S. Earley and Ricky Allen of Sotheby’s International Realty share the listing.
The couple, who were found dead in the house in early 2025, purchased the hilltop property overlooking views stretching from the Jemez Mountains to Colorado in the 1990s, then worked with builder Doug McDowell and architects Harry Daple and Stephen Samuelson of Studio Arquitectura to convert an existing house into a “part pueblo, part colonial New Mexico, part Spanish Baroque” residence.
Walls of glass in the fireside living room overlook sweeping mountain vistas.
Aram Herrera/Airs Cloud Media for Sotheby’s International Realty
Set on over 53 acres in the gated Santa Fe Summit development northeast of the city, the entire spread, completed in 1997, has a main home, a guesthouse, and a studio with a combined total of four bedrooms and 10 bathrooms in roughly 13,000 square feet. There’s also a swimming pool, a hot tub, a putting green, and garaging for up to six vehicles.
Inside the olive green stucco primary dwelling, the public spaces are anchored by an expansive fireside living area, a sunken dining room, and a study topped with a decorative coffered ceiling. The kitchen comes with an eat-in island, stainless appliances, a butler’s pantry, and access to a wine cellar, while a primary suite flaunts a separate office and dual closets and baths.
The grounds host a putting green, a hot tub, and a swimming pool.
Aram Herrera/Airs Cloud Media for Sotheby’s International Realty
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The lower level holds a gym along with game and media rooms, and elsewhere is a three-bedroom guesthouse with its own kitchen and living area, plus a flexible studio that can be used for creative pursuits or as additional guest accommodations.
When the property first hit the market, the listing agents told The Wall Street Journal they were offering the estate at fair market value based on its much-publicized tragic past. Investigators ruled that Arakawa, 65, died from a respiratory illness linked to the hantavirus last February, while Hackman, who was in the advanced stages of Alzheimer’s disease, passed away days later from severe heart disease.
Click here for more photos of the Santa Fe residence.
Aram Herrera/Airs Cloud Media for Sotheby’s International Realty
Authors
Wendy Bowman
Wendy Bowman is a real estate writer at Robb Report. Before that, she was a freelancer for Modern Luxury and several other media outlets, where she primarily covered luxury properties for…
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