Brad Pitt says he’s been in love with Carmel’s new 1990s home

CARMEL – Brad Pitt said of the Carmel Highlands property overlooking the Pacific Ocean he recently gave $40 million for: “It’s a place I’ve been in love with since the 1990s.”

The 58-year-old actor bought the DL James House in the Carmel area of ​​Monterey County, adding another major gem to his portfolio that he says could be his new bachelor pad.

“I guess I’m (the bachelor),” Pitt told Extra at the Los Angeles premiere of his new film, “Bullet Train.”

“It’s a pad. Why not …? It’s a place I’ve been in love with since (the 1990s) and it’s been a wonderful owner… The opportunity came up and I couldn’t pass it up.”

Pitt bought the house, which is perched on a cliff high above the ocean, in an off-market purchase that is believed to be one of the most expensive sales in one of the most sought-after locations in the country.

A Monterey County property record describes the 2.51-acre parcel as consisting of land with two residences, the largest being a 3,793-square-foot, three-bedroom, four-bathroom structure built in 1914.

It mirrors a second 695-square-foot structure built in 1940, consisting of one bedroom and one bathroom. Other attributes in the county deed list a total of five fireplaces, a 550-square-foot conservatory, a 504-square-foot garage and a 588-square-foot basement.

The house is named after DL James, an American writer who commissioned Charles Green to design the house. The home, called Seaward, has an exterior of golden granite that is quarried from nearby Yankee Point, giving the structure the appearance of jutting out of the cliff where it sits, according to Craftsman Bungalow. The Craftsman-style stonework of the home is said to have been inspired by the ruins of Tintagel in England.

Green, along with his brother Henry, made up the influential 20th century architectural firm Green and Green. They were supporters of the Arts and Crafts movement. Charles Green moved to Carmel around the time he was commissioned to design Seaward, where he lived until his death in 1957.

“Off-market property” refers to a house that is sold without ever being publicly offered. The seller either advertises the home privately to a select group of potential buyers or negotiates directly with the buyer without ever advertising the property for sale.

According to the National Association of Realtors, off-market real estate sales happen more often than many realize. It says 10 percent of all sellers find a buyer without registering on the Multiple Listing Service, or MLS. The number of home sales that do not include MLS listings varies greatly by region. It tends to be highest in areas where the local housing market is hot.

Betty White’s “Golden Girl” house in Carmel Meadows sold this year for nearly $3 million more than asking price.

Before Pitt, the house had been owned since 1999 by an LLC associated with Chicago Research and Trading founder Joe Ritchie, who died earlier this year, according to Architectural Digest.

In 2001, Ritchie received permission from the Monterey County Planning Commission to drill and blast an access tunnel through the rock below the house to the rocky beach below, but the California Coastal Commission appealed that decision.

An architecture enthusiast and collector of homes, other properties Pitt owns include a nearly two-acre complex that he created over 15 years, buying six different lots in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles, spending a total of nearly $5 million on the acquisition of homes, according to Realtor.com.

He also owns an 11.5-acre waterfront retreat in Santa Barbara County, for which he paid about $4 million in the early 2000s. The actor also has a French chateau known as Miraval, a 1,200-acre property he purchased in 2008 for around $60 million.

Pitt bought a French Quarter mansion in New Orleans in 2006 for $3.5 million, which he sold in 2016 for $4.9 million, and a mid-century modern beach house in Malibu that he acquired in 2005 ., remodeled and sold in 2011 for $12 million, among other properties.