Ellen DeGeneres’s house flipping hobby is one of the most prolific amongst her celebrity peers. Early in her career, the comedian just wanted to be able to have a home to call her own. Little did she know that her first real estate purchase would lead to an extremely profitable passion. “The first thing I did when I made money was buy a house. And then…” she recalled to Architectural Digest in 2011, as her wife, Portia de Rossi, quipped, “Another one, and another one, and another one, and another one.”
That abode, a Spanish bungalow in West Hollywood, was also DeGeneres’s initial experience with flipping houses—although she has said she doesn’t consider the phrase to be an accurate description of what she does. “I fixed it up and later sold it,” the designer of her namesake ED Ellen DeGeneres brand told the Los Angeles Times in 2015. “That was when I realized that if you make some improvements, you can make money.”
Regardless of what term they use, DeGeneres and de Rossi have a habit of buying and selling at a shocking rate. Despite often making a significant profit, DeGeneres insists that cash isn’t what drives her to renovate and sell these extravagant homes. “I’ve never bought to sell. I always say, ‘This is it. I’m never moving,’” she told The New York Times in 2014. “People laugh at me now.”
When speaking to AD about her new furniture design competition show back in 2021, DeGeneres declined to confirm exactly how many homes she’s owned over the years, but she did say this: “The problem is I keep seeing houses I like. I see one that has potential and I love putting my own twist on it.”
Though the former talk show host has at times bought and sold numerous properties within the same month, her real estate purchases seem to have slowed since she left the US in favor of the English countryside at the end of last year.
Here, we look back at some of the couple’s most memorable real estate transactions.
Hollywood Hills starter home
In 2003—the same year she began hosting The Ellen DeGeneres Show—the budding real estate tycoon bought a Hollywood Hills home for $6 million. She sold the four-bedroom, four-and-a-half bathroom property to Will Ferrell three years later for $9 million.
Tree house in the Hills
DeGeneres and de Rossi reportedly began their romance in 2004, and the comedian also paid $1.275 million for a midcentury-style Hollywood Hills home nicknamed “the tree house,” due to its 2,000 square feet of outdoor living spaces. The Finding Nemo star reportedly sold the two-bedroom, two-bathroom property for $2.1 million one year later to late actor Heath Ledger. It was then owned by Hunger Games star Josh Hutcherson, who put it on the market in 2019.
Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries’s Montecito wedding venue
Within the year of 2007, the women acquired a mansion in Montecito, California, for $15.75 million and sold it for $20 million. The property in question reportedly went on to be used as the location of Kris Humphries and Kim Kardashian’s lavish televised wedding in 2011 (like DeGeneres and de Rossi’s ownership of the home, their marriage was over within the same calendar year).
Beverly Hills compound
The duo really began to ramp up their real estate activity in 2008, paying $29 million for a 9,200-square-foot property in Beverly Hills, and then buying two surrounding homes to incorporate into the estate, which Architectural Digest later toured. “It was a really beautiful property and we loved it there,” DeGeneres wrote in her book, Home. “In fact, we got married there.” (They tied the knot in August 2008.) By 2012, they had sold the compound to Ryan Seacrest for $37 million.
Thousand Oaks ranch
As if 2008 wasn’t busy enough, the Emmy-winner and the Arrested Development actor also picked up a horse ranch in Thousand Oaks, California, for $8.5 million. After renovating the property, they sold it for $10.85 million in 2013. “Everyone thought it would take me (many) years to get it in shape,” DeGeneres wrote of the ranch in Home. “But it actually took me 12 short months.”
Brad Pitt’s Malibu manse
The couple scooped up Brad Pitt’s former Malibu home for $12 million in 2011 and sold it one year later for $13 million.
Skouras residence
Their next purchase was the Skouras residence, a midcentury Beverly Hills home designed by architect Hal Levitt, which the pair bought for $17.4 million in 2012. They sold it in 2013 for $20 million.
Return to Montecito
DeGeneres and de Rossi added a Wallace Frost–designed Montecito estate to their portfolio for $26.5 million in 2013. Five years later, they sold the property, with a sunken tennis court, a badminton court, and a lap swimming pool, for $34 million.
The Brody House
In another quick flip, they paid almost $40 million for an A. Quincy Jones–designed Holmby Hills home (called the Brody House) in 2014, and then sold the lavish property for $55 million just six months later. The buyer was Napster founder Sean Parker, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Los Angeles condos
That same year, the couple shelled out $13.2 million for a pair of adjacent condos in Los Angeles, a move DeGeneres described in Home as “a giant experiment.” Three years later, they sold the residences for $11.85 million.
Beverly Hills villa
The condos might have sold at a loss, but the pair saw a significant profit in 2015 when they obtained a four-bedroom, eight-bathroom Beverly Hills villa for approximately $16 million and sold it three years later for $35 million.
Rancho San Leandro
Rancho San Leandro, a historic property in Montecito, joined their collection of homes in 2017. After buying it for $7.2 million, they sold it to Tinder founder Sean Rad less than a year later for $11 million.
In May 2021, the couple bought the property again, this time spending $14.3 million, or just short of double what they originally paid. This same year they picked up the three-bedroom house across the street for $12 million in an off-market deal. The latter home sold quickly, for $13.5 million, and in January 2023, they sold Rancho San Leandro once again for a staggering $21 million.
Carpinteria beach house
In 2017 they also dropped $18.6 million on a mansion in Carpinteria, California. Just two years later, they sold the oceanfront beach house for $23 million to makeup tycoon Jamie Kern Lima and her husband, Paulo Lima.
Hollywood Regency–style house
DeGeneres and the Scandal star bought a Hollywood Regency–style mansion in Beverly Hills designed by architect John Elgin Woolf for $15 million in 2018. Less than a year later, they said goodbye to the five-bedroom property with a $15.5 million sale.
Santa Barbara ranch
Also in 2018, the couple purchased a Santa Barbara ranch for $6.7 million. One year later, Nickelodeon president Brian Robbins bought the three-bedroom, three-and-a-half-bathroom property from them for $6.98 million.
Salt Hill estate
In early 2019 they dropped $27 million on a five-bedroom, 10-bathroom Balinese-style Montecito mansion known as the Salt Hill estate. The following year, they sold it for $33.3 million.
Adam Levine and Behati Prinsloo’s mansion
And when Adam Levine and Behati Prinsloo were ready to sell their newly renovated five-bedroom, 12-bathroom Beverly Hills mansion in May of 2019, DeGeneres and De Rossi scooped up the Tudor-influenced home for $45 million. The couple sold the dwelling for $45 million in April 2021, according to records.
Montecito Tudor from England
The couple rang in 2020 by purchasing one of their most unique homes yet: a three-bedroom Tudor in Montecito, California, which was originally constructed in England in the 1700s and later brought over to the United States. DeGeneres and de Rossi paid $3.6 million for this place, and clearly spent the COVID-19 pandemic giving it some serious TLC, because by June of 2020, they’d sold it for nearly double that price. The buyer was Ariana Grande.
More Montecito properties
That September, they picked up a four-acre property in Montecito with multiple buildings on it, including a Tom Kundig–designed barn and a Cape Dutch–style main house. At $49 million, this was one of the most expensive sales in the area—that is, until the couple sold it for $55 million less than a year later.
In 2021—not long after buying back Rancho San Leandro—DeGeneres and de Rossi dropped $2.9 million on yet another home in the seaside town, a small two-bedroom midcentury-modern bungalow not far from Butterfly Beach. They then sold this home for $5.2 million in March 2025.
The couple weren’t done with their 2021 shopping spree, however. That year, they also bought a $2.95 million two-bedroom Santa Barbara home that still seems to be under their ownership.
Robert Skinner–designed Beverly Hills home
Despite Degeneres and de Rossi’s clear penchant for Montecito real estate, they have not fully abandoned LA. In September 2021, the host of Ellen’s Next Great Designer and the Ally McBeal star dropped $8.5 million for a midcentury-modern-style Beverly Hills home designed by architect Robert Skinner. Featured in the 2001 book Modernism Rediscovered, the five-bedroom home was restored by architect John Bertram and interior designer Sarah Shetter and features charming details like wood cabinetry in the kitchen and a freestanding fireplace in the primary bedroom which would not look out of place in The Jetsons. By mid 2022, they sold the place for $8.8 million in an off-market deal to a man who already owned two homes adjacent to the property.
Villa Tragara
Despite the staggering frequency with which these two buy and sell homes, Degeneres and de Rossi do tend to select properties that are architecturally interesting. Their first purchase of 2022 (that we know of) was an unusual three-bedroom, 12,000-square-foot Montecito mansion inspired by Alhambra palace in Granada, Spain. It is unclear what updates they made to the pad, known as Villa Tragara, but just six months after buying it for $21 million, they sold it to talent manager Scooter Braun for $36 million.
Early 20th-century Montecito cottage
That same year, they picked up a 1915 Montecito cottage for $5.4 million and promptly placed it back on the market; it ended up selling in March 2023 for $5.1 million—a rare (though relatively small) loss for the couple.
Brown-Sidney house
They then purchased the Richard Neutra–designed Brown-Sidney house, in Bel Air, for $29 million in an off-market deal. This prestigious piece of architecture, formerly owned by Tom Ford and renovated by the fashion designer with AD100 firm Marmol Radziner, boasts three bedrooms, six bathrooms, and 180-degree views of Los Angeles.
Record-breaking Carpinteria mansion
Topping off 2022, the couple broke a Santa Barbara County record with the purchase of a five-bedroom, eight-bathroom Tuscan-style mansion and an adjacent parcel of land in Carpinteria for a whopping $70 million. In August 2024, they sold the neighboring properties to mining magnate Robert Friedland for an even more impressive $96 million.
Pompeiian Court
In June 2023, the actors paid $22.5 million for a grand Mediterranean-style estate known as Pompeiian Court. The compound features five bedrooms, 10 bathrooms, a chardonnay vineyard, and a tennis court. DeGeneres and de Rossi re-listed the eight-acre property that October with an asking price of $46.5 million. A few months later, Friedland bought the Roman-inspired home for $32 million—but that’s not the end of the story. The mining magnate sold the compound back to the couple for the same price he paid for it in August 2024 when he bought their $96 million neighboring Carpinteria properties. Listing records indicate that DeGeneres and de Rossi still own the estate, which hit the rental market briefly in January before going off-market again.
UK estate
DeGeneres and de Rossi left the United States in the fall of 2024, reportedly as a direct reaction to the outcome of the presidential election. The pair relocated to the Cotswolds region of the English countryside. “Ellen was in England house-hunting in the beginning of October. She ended up finding a house that she loved and purchased it shortly after,” an anonymous source told People. According to The Standard, the couple bought a bucolic 43-acre property with a six-bedroom, four-bathroom farmhouse and a guest cottage. Reported amenities include a gym, a game room, and private offices. The duo paid $18 million for the residence, the New York Post reported. “So happy we get to travel and explore the world together in the next 20 years, and looking forward to our first snowy Christmas,” DeGeneres wrote in an Instagram post at the beginning of December.
In April 2025, The Daily Mail reported that the comedian and her wife had swapped that England home for a hilltop mansion about 30 minutes away, on the outskirts of an Oxfordshire village. “Everything has been done very discreetly, so it’s not clear what the terms of the deal was, but it seems that it has recently changed hands for not much less than they paid for their previous place,” a local real estate expert told the outlet. The couple’s new modern-style mansion spans 10,000 square feet, per the report, and comes with an infinity pool, a theatre, a gym, and a steam room.
This story originally featured on architecturaldigest.com
