For almost three decades, the Studio City property was closely tied to Alex Trebek’s family life. Trebek bought the California house in 1991, not long after marrying Jean, and spent years changing, repairing and maintaining it himself. It was where the couple raised their children and where Trebek continued his interest in construction away from the Jeopardy! studio. After he died in 2020, the house was put on the market and sold in 2022. A year later, photographs showed the old building being reduced to rubble. The property itself did not disappear, though. As reported by The Sun, the 1.5-acre site has since been redeveloped, with a far larger modern farmhouse-style mansion taking the place of the house Trebek and his family had known for so long.
Alex Trebek bought the Studio City home for $2.15 million in 1991
The house stood on Fryman Road in Studio City, on a 1.5-acre parcel in Fryman Estates. Trebek bought it for $2.15 million in 1991 and lived there with Jean for nearly 30 years. The original property dated to 1923 and had a Mediterranean-style appearance, with the scale and layout of a substantial family residence rather than a newly built modern compound.By the time the house was offered for sale in January 2022, it had about 10,000 square feet of living space. There were five bedrooms and nine bathrooms, along with a two-storey entrance, dual staircases, a library, media room and cinema. Outside, the grounds included a guesthouse, gardens, a fountain and a swimming pool with a slide.The sale came not long after Trebek’s death. His daughter Emily, a Los Angeles-based estate agent, helped put the property on the market with an asking price of $7 million. It eventually sold for $6.45 million in May 2022, as reported by The Sun.
The Studio City house became a project for Trebek over the years
The property was more than a place Trebek happened to live. He was heavily involved in its upkeep and renovation, an interest that went back much further than his television career.In 2019, he undertook a major renovation of the couple’s primary bathroom as a gift to Jean. He later described the difficulties of working on an older house, including problems that only became apparent once demolition had begun. The finished bathroom was something he was particularly pleased with because, as he put it, Jean liked the result.That interest in houses had been with him since childhood. Trebek said he had once wanted to become an architect and later considered getting into real estate, even planning to work on his first house renovation with his father. Home improvement remained a personal interest throughout his years on television.Photographs of the property before its demolition showed how much of that character had accumulated over the years. Books were visible around the house, while the kitchen opened into the main living areas. The cinema, formal entrance and pool area gave the property the scale expected of a high-end Los Angeles residence, but the renovation work gave it a more personal connection to its owner.
PC: Mansion Global
The house stood for decades before demolition began in 2023
By September 2023, the long-time Trebek residence was being dismantled. Photos shared online showed construction machinery working through the building, bringing down a property that had stood on the site for decades.Reports at the time said demolition permits had been issued earlier that year. The new owners had acquired the property after its 2022 sale, and the old house was subsequently cleared from the site.The timing made the demolition particularly striking for people familiar with Trebek’s connection to the house. He died in November 2020, and the property had only changed hands in 2022. By the following year, the rooms associated with his family life, his renovations and his years away from the Jeopardy! set were gone.Some fans reacted to photographs of the demolition on Reddit and a Jeopardy! discussion forum. Several remembered Trebek talking about repairing the house himself, while others recalled stories connected with the property.
A new 20,000-square-foot mansion replaced Trebek’s former home
The demolition did not leave the 1.5-acre property vacant for long. Later reporting shows that developers Mark Alexander and Rob Diaz acquired the site and built a new residence in its place.Mansion Global reported in September 2025 that the replacement was a modern farmhouse-style mansion of around 20,000 square feet, making it roughly twice the size of the 10,000-square-foot Trebek residence that previously stood there. The report said the property was being offered for $42 million.The new building has a very different architectural language. Rather than reproducing the old Mediterranean-style house, the developers created a contemporary compound with two large A-frame forms around the entrance, cedar-clad exterior walls and sloping slate roofs.The property remains heavily landscaped despite the scale of the new construction. The new residence was designed around a courtyard and swimming pool, with additional limestone structures containing wellness and gym facilities. The grounds were planted with mature trees and thousands of native plants, according to Mansion Global.
From a 10,000-square-foot family home to a modern compound
Trebek’s former house covered about 10,000 square feet and contained five bedrooms and nine bathrooms. The replacement has been described as approximately 20,000 square feet, with eight bedrooms in the Mansion Global report.The transformation also changes what the address represents. For nearly 30 years, it was the Trebek family’s private home, shaped in part by the host’s own repairs and renovations. The newer building belongs to a different period of the property’s history, with its design conceived as a new development rather than an adaptation of the house Trebek maintained.
The property’s history did not end with the demolition
Trebek’s former house is therefore no longer standing, but the property itself has taken on another life. The same parcel that once held a 1923 Mediterranean-style residence now contains a contemporary mansion several times larger in scale and designed for a very different purpose.The change happened in stages: Trebek bought the property for $2.15 million in 1991, lived there with his family for almost three decades, and spent years working on the house. It was listed after his death, sold for $6.45 million in 2022 and demolished in 2023. The redevelopment that followed eventually produced a modern mansion reported at around 20,000 square feet.
