Buyer Cara Santana
Location Hollywood Hills, Los Angeles, Calif.
Price $2.6 million
Year 1956
Specs 2,100 square feet, 2 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms
Lot Size 5,156 square feet
Most real-life Tinseltown romances rarely play out like they do in those endearingly sappy Hallmark shows. Case in point: “Vida” and “The Real Brothers of Simi Valley” actress Cara Santana and her fiancée Jesse Metcalfe, who had a messy split in 2020 after nearly 13 years together. The result? A called-off engagement, along with the inevitable sale of the 1930s ranch-style Los Angeles house the once-happy couple shared.
Santana — also a popular fashion blogger and entrepreneur with her own eponymously named clothing line — has nonetheless trudged on both romantically and residentially. The Texas-born showbizzer, 36, is reportedly dating “Thirty Seconds to Mars” drummer/Jarod Leto’s older brother Shannon Leto; records reveal she’s also doled out $2.6 million for her own personal Hollywood Hills wonderland, perched high above the city’s bustling Sunset Strip.
Nestled into a hairpin curve on a famously narrow and twisty hillside street, and fronted by a two-car garage, the boxy contemporary house was built in 1956 and extensively renovated in 2015, per the listings. Beyond a chic pivoting front door, the main level features nearly 2,000 square feet of open living space punctuated by high ceilings, hardwood floors, and floor-to-ceiling walls of glass that open to reveal spectacular ocean and city skyline views.
Flowing easily together in a single joint space are a fireside living area, dining area and eat-in kitchen — all of which connect to a spacious balcony ideal for lounging. A custom 90-degree winding staircase travels to the lower level, which houses a sumptuous master suite with a marble-swaddled bath. A secondary bedroom also lies on this level.
Up until spring 2021, Santana and Metcalfe also co-owned a one-bedroom, 1.5-bath condo in a fashionable building in New York City’s Little Italy neighborhood. Per property records, Metcalfe bought out Santana’s interest in the Manhattan property for $933,500.
Zac Mostame of The Agency and Shawn Elliott of Nest Seekers were the listing agents; Santana was repped by Peter Cornell of The Oppenheim Group.
