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Kevin Comolli’s “Butterfly House” in Monterey sells for $29M

Architecturally significant home is Monterey’s most expensive sale this year

Kevin Comolli and 26320 Scenic Road in Monterey
Kevin Comolli and 26320 Scenic Road in Monterey (Accel, Sherman Chu)

Monterey’s winged “Butterfly House” has sold for $29 million, according to Tim Allen of Coldwell Banker, who represented the buyer. 

The price comes to more than $7,800 per square foot for the three-bedroom, five-bath architecturally significant mid-century property with 280 feet of ocean frontage with a winged roofline that conjures its name. 

Allen said via email that the half-acre “iconic coastal property” had been “coveted” by his clients, along with many others along the central coast, for years. He did not reply to further questions about the buyers. The home closed on July 17, so records information on the new owner was not yet available. 

Earlier this month, TRD broke the news that the famed Frank Wynkoop-designed home owned by venture capitalist Kevin Comolli was in contract. Comolli first listed the home nearly one year ago with Shelly Lynch of Carmel Realty Company at $40 million. It never underwent a price reduction, but the final sale price is over a quarter off the asking.

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Lynch said via email that the property had received other offers over the last year and that about a dozen qualified buyers as well as a similar number of “influential people” had toured it. She said pricing such a unique property was like pricing a work of art in that the value is subjective and that the sellers are “thrilled that the home will be enjoyed and cared for by another family and are happy for everyone involved.”

Even at an $11-million discount off the asking price, the sale represents the highest price ever achieved in Carmel proper, according to Lynch. It is also the biggest in Monterey County so far this year, though the planned sale of a 14,000-acre ranch owned by first Apple investor and later CEO Mike Markkula to a nature conservancy for $35 million is set to close at the end of this month. Until now, the biggest residential deal in the coastal county this year was the late May $24.5-million sale of a compound with more than 6 acres located right on Highway One between Carmel and Big Sur. 

Homes in Monterey County have had among the lowest price declines in the Bay Area, according to a July report from Compass, which lists second-quarter median house prices as down by only 2 percent year-over-year. Sonoma prices dropped even less at 1 percent — versus 20 percent in San Francisco, 13 percent in Alameda and 10 percent in Marin — showing there is still a strong appetite for homes in the Bay Area’s outlying markets. 

Luxury sales in Monterey, defined as those over $3 million, are also trending upwards, according to Compass data, but are still far lower than they had been before the pandemic. Sales over $5 million are by far the slowest in the county, with an average 75 days on market, compared with 46 days for homes over $3 million. There were only eight sales above $5 million in the first half of this year, a nearly 70 percent decrease year over year.

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ArchitectureMontereyResidentialSales