Ellen DeGeneres quietly offloads her most expensive property for $US55 million, picks up another two

Ellen DeGeneres has been very busy trading homes again in her ever-changing property portfolio, offloaded one of her Montecito estates for $US55 million ($73 million) while also picking up another two homes in the same area.

While they have owned dozens of homes across Southern California, the popular talk-show host and her wife Portia de Rossi have quietly sold their most expensive home and bought two smaller ones for a total of $US15 million, Dirt reports.

The 63-year-old and her Australian-American wife, 48, only bought the Cape Dutch-style estate less than a year ago for $US49 million in late 2020.

Very little is known about how much the pair changed the property in that time, with few photos available as it was an off-market deal, but the custom-built village-like compound was completed in 2012.

Since it has never officially hit the market from when it was built, there are only aerial views that show there is 1486 square metres of total living space, veggie gardens and vast driveways with parking for more than 30 cars.

The property consists of five buildings surrounding a lake that is equipped with a rowing boat, a network of paths and an infinity pool.

The couple have moved back to their Rancho San Leandro estate in an exclusive gated community in the Montecito Valley, which cost them $US7.195 million in 2017.

Dirt reports that records reveal they have expanded on that acreage by buying the house across the street for $US12 million, records reveal.

Again, the home was bought off-market so there are very few photos and details available except that it was another custom-built, Spanish-cross-Mediterranean style property.

But they did not stop there, with records revealing they bought another, albeit more humble, house in Montecito for $US3 million.

The two-bedroom, two-bathroom cottage covers just 130 square metres.

While the couple have gone through their fair share of homes – whether to flip them or just hold and sell them – they still have their mid-century bungalow in California which they bought for $US2.9 million in June this year.