Ellen DeGeneres and mining magnate Robert Friedland have swapped California properties.
DeGeneres, the TV personality known for her lucrative real-estate trades, has sold a blufftop home near Santa Barbara, Calif., for $96 million, less than two years after she purchased it for about $70 million, property records show. The buyer of the Carpinteria property is an entity tied to Friedland, according to property records. And in June, DeGeneres and her wife, Portia de Rossi, paid Friedland $32 million to buy back a Santa Barbara home they sold him earlier this year for the same amount, records show.
Carpinteria is a coastal town near Santa Barbara and Montecito that has attracted celebrities including filmmaker George Lucas and actor Kevin Costner. The property DeGeneres sold comprises two parcels totaling about 10 acres, with a roughly 8,000-square-foot house with exposed wood beams, a cabana and guest cottage, records show. DeGeneres and de Rossi bought the home from retired hedge-fund manager Bruce Kovner in 2022. Kovner, who founded Caxton Associates, had spent years assembling a 22-acre compound before listing it for $160 million in 2021. He still owns about 12 acres with a roughly 8,000-square-foot house, which is listed for $75 million, according to Zillow.
The property is located on Padaro Lane, one of the area’s premier streets, said real-estate agent Sean Matthews of Compass, who wasn’t involved in a deal but listed a ranch property nearby for $109 million a few years ago
The Santa Barbara estate is a circa-1919 home on about eight acres. DeGeneres and de Rossi also paid $6 million to buy a vacant, roughly 3-acre property next door from another seller, according to property records.
Friedland is founder and chairman of Ivanhoe Capital, which invests in the mineral and energy sectors. He recently sold another Carpinteria property for about $49.6 million after buying it for roughly $46.9 million in 2023, records show.
DeGeneres and de Rossi are known to be prolific real-estate investors. In 2020, they paid $49 million to buy a Montecito estate from comedian and political commentator Dennis Miller and his wife, former model Carolyn Espley-Miller.
Prices and sales volume for single-family homes in Santa Barbara, Montecito and Carpinteria rose during the first five months of 2024 compared with the same period last year, according to real-estate brokerage Village Properties. The number of single-family home sales in South Santa Barbara County rose 19% year-over-year, while the median sale price was $2.265 million, up 8% year-over-year.