Bob Dylan lived quietly beside a secret garden in NYC for 20 years. See inside the home, now on sale for $7.25 million.

• The NYC townhouse where Bob Dylan lived quietly with his kids from the 1980s to 2005 is for sale.
• The enclave, with only 20 homes and a shared garden, remains a favorite haunt of actors and musicians.
• It’s just a coincidence that the movie about his life is in theaters now, the listing agent said.

A New York City home where Bob Dylan lived quietly for years is for sale.

The legendary singer-songwriter rented the townhouse on East 49th Street in Manhattan in the 1980s — then loved it so much that he bought it under a business associate’s name in 1990 for an undisclosed amount.

In 2005, he sold it to the current owners for $4.45 million; they have put it on the market with an asking price of $7.25 million.

The five-story home is in Turtle Bay Gardens, a landmarked enclave of 20 1860s-built townhouses on East 49th and East 48th whose backyards lead to a shared garden for residents only.

Dylan, one of the best-selling music artists of all time, had young kids at the time and liked the privacy, “Dylan’s local fix-it man at the time” told real-estate news site Curbed.

Turtle Bay Gardens has long attracted creative types, including Hollywood and Broadway greats. Previous renters of Dylan’s home, at 242 East 49th Street, included Mary Tyler Moore.

Broadway composer Stephen Sondheim called No. 244 home for 60 years until his death in 2021; it sold for $7 million in 2023, according to property records. Katharine Hepburn lived next door, at 244 East 49th Street. Child actor turned fashion designer Mary-Kate Olsen and her ex Olivier Sarkozy owned 226-228 East 49th Street from 2024 to 2022.

The current owners of Dylan’s home used it as a pied-à-terre, according to Sotheby’s International Realty agent Lisa Larson, who has the listing with her colleague Angela Wu.

“They just weren’t coming to New York very often, so they rented it out, and now they’ve just decided to sell it,” Larson told Business Insider.

It hit the market on December 5. The Bob Dylan biopic, “A Complete Unknown,” with Timothy Chalamet as Dylan, is released in theaters on Christmas Day, December 25.

Larson said that the timing is a happy accident.

“I didn’t even know there was a new Bob Dylan movie,” Larson said. “It was totally coincidental, because we were just waiting for the last tenant to move out.”

Take a look inside Dylan’s former house, which has a mix of old-school features and modern amenities, and the secret garden on which it sits.