HWY 1 Big Sur, CA

When Brigga Mosca, 70, and Reed Cripe, 82, moved from Los Angeles to Big Sur, Calif., in 1983, they camped out in a two-person tent on a 5-acre piece of land they bought for around $70,000. They took their time designing and creating a custom home with lots of glass for viewing the stunningly beautiful and dramatic landscape of mountains and sea.

Now the couple is selling the home for $3 million. The impetus is that their son, who lives in Santa Cruz, Calif., is expecting their first grandchild. Another factor: they are getting too old to live in such a rugged place, as much as they treasure it there, said Mosca.

On a good day, when the main highway isn’t closed due to land movement or fires, the closest supermarket and bank are about a 45 minutes drive away. Healthcare could be an issue in the future, since Big Sur only has a clinic, not a hospital. “It’s harder for us to be here,” said Mosca.

Big Sur’s ruggedness and remoteness have always been as much of an attraction as its pristine air quality, ocean views, meadows, mountains, hot springs and valleys of redwood forests. The area, some 70 miles long and 30 miles wide, has an estimated 887 properties, about a third of which are vacation homes, and around 1,500 full-time residents. Most homes sell for $3 million and above but there is a wide range, with listings currently priced between $1.8 million and $100 million.

Its main thoroughfare, Highway 1, a two-lane road, has been periodically closed in places by natural disasters since it opened in 1937. At night, frequent thick fog can make the narrow winding passageway along steep cliffs frightening.

In recent years, the area has become even more remote. A 6.8-mile segment of Highway 1 south of Big Sur near the community of Lucia closed in February 2024 and isn’t expected to reopen until after the summer of 2025. A slide in March 2024 near the Rocky Creek Bridge restricted access to the north, limiting trips in and out of Big Sur to twice a day, and then only to residents using Caltrans convoys. One lane reopened in May 2025 to signalized traffic control. That portion of the road has been closed for overnight repair work periodically throughout the spring.

In March 2025, Cal Fire released an update of its maps that places much of Big Sur in what it classifies as a “Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone.” It is increasingly difficult to get homeowners insurance in the area other than that offered by the Fair Plan, California’s state-chartered insurer of last resort.

Now, there are an unusual number of what real-estate agents call “legacy properties” on the market. These are large acreages in prime locations that haven’t been for sale for decades; parcels accumulated by long-term owners who are ready to move on, either because a spouse has died, the grown children aren’t interested in living there or they just want an easier way of life.

About 70% of the 15 homes currently listed or that have sold between May 2024 and May 2025 fall into this category, including an 150-acre oceanfront ranch that has been in the same family for roughly 60 years. It is on the market for $100 million.

“It’s rare to have this kind of inventory available all at once,” said Zak Freedman of Sotheby’s International Realty. He and Nicole Truszkowski are the agents for a $21.5 million listing of a 43-acre oceanfront compound, called Bien Sur, with multiple guesthouses, a caretaker’s unit and a funicular down to the beach.

Bien Sur’s owner, Merle Mullin, lived there part time for about 30 years with her husband, California insurance titan Peter Mullin, until his death in 2023. While she is still obsessed with the area’s beauty, and described Big Sur as “the closest place to God I’ve ever encountered,” she said it is hard for her to be there without him now. “What would I do by myself? It’s so isolated,” she said. She’s focused on renovating her home in L.A. now, she said.

Bien Sur, for sale for $22 million, juts out toward the sea and has a funicular that goes from the house to a beach.

A whalebone is fixed above the fireplace in the living room of the main house.

Set on about 44 acres, the compound includes multiple guesthouses and a caretakers’ unit.

Venture capitalist Bob Pavey is trying to sell his 109-acre, oceanfront, eco-friendly, three-bedroom, 2,700-square-foot modern house that is shaped like an airplane wing and located on a ridge between Pfeiffer Beach and a state park. The property went back on the market for $32 million in June, down from its $35 million asking price in April 2022.

Pavey is now 83 and his wife has Alzheimer’s disease and dementia symptoms, making it more difficult to keep up the house. “I don’t want to leave it, but it’s more work than makes sense for us,” he said. He said the road closure, plus the current economic uncertainty in the market, is reducing potential buyers. He said they’ll be back to visit a lot.

A portion of Highway 1 has been closed due to a landslide, making access to Big Sur even more difficult.

The road closures hurt many local businesses and residents who rely on tourism, said Ryne Leuzinger, 40, chairman of the board of directors of the Community Association of Big Sur. However, they also provide relief from the increasing traffic jams of visitors and foster a closeness in the community, he said. He has lived there eight years and commutes about an hour each way five days a week to work as a professor at Cal State Monterey Bay. “People are deliberate about opting to be in a place with fires, floods and road closures,” he said. “It’s only for the hardy.”

While older longtime residents may be finding the area and its new challenges too much, younger people continue to be drawn here. Ethan Colburn, a 27-year-old who works remotely in commercial real estate, bought a two-bedroom house last December near the home where he grew up going with his parents for vacation. He said he loves living in Big Sur and feels lucky to be able to do so.

A house on the market for $32 million and owned by Bob Pavey is built into the landscape, with green grass on the roof.

Shaped like an airplane wing, the house was designed by the late architect Mickey Muennig, whose signature blend of indigenous wood, sculpted concrete and floor-to-ceiling windows has become synonymous with Big Sur’s organic architecture.

The main house was completed in 2004 and has three bedrooms.

“I’m a homebody, like most people here,” he said. He wanted a smaller, tighter community and said he feels less lonely than he did when he lived in L.A. Now he meets people on the trails and at the post office. “I don’t miss the chaos and air pollution of the city,” he said. He doesn’t mind making the drive to L.A. or San Francisco every couple of weeks, which he does because he misses going to restaurants. “I’m finding I need some balance,” he said.

Selling the new spate of high-price legacy properties currently on the market could take some time. In the past three years, there have been only two sales over $10 million, including the record setter of $24.5 million in May 2023, a three-parcel estate with two existing homes and a garage/studio on 6.2 acres. Since 1995, a total of four properties have sold for over $10 million, two of which were over $20 million, according to Adam Pinterits, director of government and community affairs at the Monterey County Association of Realtors.

There are currently four properties worth a total of around $100 million being shopped off market, real-estate agents said. The median sale price in Big Sur was $1.488 million from Jan. 1 to May 30, with an average of 86 days on the market, said Pinterits.

“It’s typical that it takes a lot of time for these kinds of properties to sell,” said Mike Gilson with Coldwell Banker. Jonathan Spencer with Compass said it is a niche pool of buyers. “No one is going out there with rose-colored glasses. They know what they’re getting into.”

Spencer represented both the buyer and seller for a 350-acre property with six homes and a private beach, known as the Newell Ranch after the longtime family who owned it. The property sold for $18 million in October, down from its $22 million list price in June 2024. A three-bedroom home on 12 acres with ocean views sold to musician Justin Chancellor, the bass player for rock bands Tool and Peach, for $3.5 million in January, down 12.4% from its initial list price.

Julee Thomas with Sotheby’s International Realty said buyers expressing interest come from across the country and the world and include tech billionaires and celebrities, most looking for a part-time house. Many fly into Monterey’s airport, which supports private jets, and make the roughly 32-mile drive south or take a helicopter from there.

One of three houses on a property currently listed for sale for $100 million

The roughly 150-acre parcel, which includes a sandy beach, was purchased in the 1960s by the late aerospace executive Cyril Chappellet.

Veronique Lievre, 66, and her husband, Heinz Legler, 72, always preferred to drive up from L.A. because of the beauty of the Highway 1 route. Now they have to go around, making it a far less enjoyable—and about 40 minutes longer—trip. Still, she has mixed feelings. “We love it when the road is closed,” she said, because it reduces traffic from tourists.

Lievre and Legler, who own a boutique hotel in Mexico, have been trying to sell their 1,325-square-foot oceanview, one-bedroom home with lots of glass, a green roof and an open floor plan for several years. They bought the land in 2006 for $935,000 and designed the home themselves. It is currently listed at $1.85 million. The couple plans to spend more time at their property in France, where there aren’t so many hills and where they can bike or walk to a farmers market every day. “We are trying to retire and have an easier life,” said Lievre.