Ellen DeGeneres has quietly bought her way back into Montecito. The comedian—and longtime real estate power buyer—recently closed on a $27.4 million estate in the celebrity-packed coastal enclave near Santa Barbara, marking her first major U.S. purchase since relocating to England in 2024. The off-market deal, which wrapped in late November according to Realtor.com, was completed through a trust long tied to DeGeneres’ property holdings.

The property was purchased from Hollywood producer Brian Grazer, who picked it up back in 2012 for $7.6 million and completed construction on the main residence in 2015. Because the sale was handled privately, images of the home haven’t surfaced, but public records point to a gated estate of just over three manicured acres with an approximately 8,700-square-foot primary residence, a couple of ancillary structures, and a pickleball court.

The acquisition is notable not just for its price tag but for its timing. Following the 2024 U.S. presidential election, DeGeneres and her wife, Portia de Rossi, decamped to the English countryside. Snapping up a Montecito estate now suggests a renewed interest in maintaining a substantial foothold in Southern California, where the couple lived for years and built one of the entertainment industry’s most active and profitable luxury property portfolios.

For more than two decades, DeGeneres has been one of Hollywood’s savviest real estate players, regularly scooping up architecturally notable homes, renovating them, and selling them at eye-popping profits. In recent years, she sold off her California holdings, including the sale of an oceanfront estate in Carpinteria that fetched a staggering $96 million.

That same buy-renovate-sell instinct followed her overseas. Since moving across the pond, the couple has purchased two rural properties in the Cotswolds, starting with a historic farmhouse set on 43 acres. The home underwent a lightning-fast renovation—reportedly requiring a team of dozens—to accommodate their full-time residency and de Rossi’s horses.

Despite the extensive overhaul and partly due to a massive flood that inundated the surrounding property (along with some tension with the neighbors), Kitesbridge Farm was ultimately deemed a mismatch for their needs. The sprawling mansion, now listed for $30 million, is centered around a landscaped courtyard, with multiple reception rooms and a relaxed indoor-outdoor flow. The couple also owns an ultramodern mansion on a large plot in a nearby village.

Whether the newly acquired Montecito estate becomes a home base or simply another money-making flip remains to be seen. But the timing is hard to miss: a headline-making California purchase arriving just as one of her U.K. homes quietly looks for a new owner—proof that, for now, her real estate story that now stretches across the Atlantic is far from over.