After Knocking $5.5M off Asking Price, Ellen Degeneres Seeks $39.5M for Rustic Santa Barbara Estate

Published: December 5, 2017 | By: American Luxury Staff

Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi couldn’t find a buyer with $45 million to throw down for their knockout estate in Montecito, so they’ve dropped the price a little more than 10%. The couple is now asking $39.5 million for the property, which they’ve owned for about four years, and put through a substantive and sensitive renovation.

The house is one of the latest for the serial flipper; DeGeneres has a long history of frequent residential trade-ins. A recent purchase on the beaches of Carpinteria is the latest acquisition for the couple; they picked up the contemporary a little more than a month ago, for $18.6 million.

The Montecito estate has, as its focus, the residence of Wallace Frost; the architect designed the home. It dates to the 1930’s, and measures about 10,500 square feet, with six bedrooms and eight baths throughout. The home is beautifully rustic, with stone and raw timber presenting a uniquely substantial design vision; the home looks very much of the earth, and of its landscape: it fits Montecito to a T.

DeGeneres and Rossi added their own stamp to the home, which mainly involves laying in some cross-cultural references, and modernizing things a little. But the soul of the home remains unchanged, and it carries with it a lilting sense of timelessness. Nine fireplaces, open-trussed ceilings, and tile floors reinforce the effect.

‘The Ellen DeGeneres Show’ has won a staggering 59 Emmy Awards since it first aired in 2003. Portia de Rossi stars on the ABC primetime potboiler ‘Scandal’; season 7 is underway.

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