Ellen DeGeneres may have suffered a brutal 2020 on the professional front, but the veteran talk show host has proved she’s still got the real estate Midas touch. Less than a month after she and longtime wife Portia hung a $40 million pricetag on their Bali-influenced Montecito mansion, the house has sold — albeit for a discounted $33.3 million. The as-yet-unidentified buyer has a Los Angeles address and paid the entire purchase price in cash, records reveal.
DeGeneres and de Rossi acquired the property in late 2018 for $27 million, and they subsequently spent another $1.9 million on a much smaller adjacent home that was also included in the $33.3 million transfer. During their two years of ownership, the couple upgraded the entire estate with a refreshed design and a new state-of-the-art security system, featuring myriad cameras and infrared lasers, following a widely reported burglary at the property.
Located at the very eastern end of Montecito, in the San Ysidro foothills overlooking Carpinteria, the so-called Salt Hill estate includes an 8,200-square-foot main mansion with 3 bedrooms and 4.5 baths, a detached 1,400-square-foot guesthouse, a separate 720-square-foot cabana/gym, and a 400-square-foot guardshack for a full-time security detail.
Hewn entirely from glass, the front door boasts through-the-house sightlines that stretch all the way to the sea, so the pizza deliery person will be wowed by the panoramic ocean views while waiting for the housekeeper to answer the door. Inside, there’s an expansive great room with a ceiling trimmed in acres of exotic wood, and a kitchen slathered in black marble and outfitted with nearly every designer stainless appliance known to mankind.
Other casually luxe interior spaces include a fully stocked library, a lounge/office filled with museum-quality furniture, and a master bathroom with built-in soaking tub and picturesque views of the rolling hills that surround the property.
But it’s out back where the star of the real estate show is found: the infinity-edged swimming pool, which dramatically juts out of the ground, pointing directly at the sea far below. The property’s acres of rolling grounds include lush tropical plantings, ancient oaks, grassy hillsides, a koi pond, tennis court, numerous patios and al fresco dining areas, and even a large succulent garden.
For the moment, DeGeneres and de Rossi continue to own a $42.5 million Beverly Hills mansion — purchased from Adam Levine in 2019 and recently made available for sale off-market — in addition to a decidedly modest condo elsewhere in Montecito.
Riskin Partners at Village Properties handled both sides of the transaction.