Why Facebook's Billionaire Founder Rents

What kind of a billionaire tech genius rents? Apparently the Mark Zuckerberg kind. So when recent news hit that Facebook founder and "The Social Network" subject Zuckerberg rents a month-to-month apartment in Palo Alto, Calif. many observers were puzzled.

After all, Bill Gates paid over $1 million just in 2009 property taxes for his Washington State home valued at over $140 million. Oracle CEO Larry Ellison famously shoveled over a reported $65 million for five lots in Malibu's Carbon Beach in 2005 -- and that was on top of the $200-million Japanese-inspired home in Woodside, Calif. that he built. And then there's the recent news of movement in Steve Jobs' 10-year battle to build his dream home, also in Woodside, that will cost many, many millions.

So why does this young tech tycoon rent?