WSJ House of the Year: a $4M storybook Carmel Highlands cottage and a $140M Saint-Tropez waterfront estate
Jan 30, 2026
Key Points
- WSJ's House of the Year award went to a $4 million 1925 Carmel Highlands cottage designed by MJ Murphy, which buyer Flora Mora purchased unaware it had already won readers' votes in the publication's year-end poll.
- The cottage's initial WSJ feature in September generated three qualified inquiries, though only one showing occurred before the price dropped from $4.7 million to $4 million.
- A $140 million Saint-Tropez waterfront estate completed in late 2025 lists for €115 million in the town's most exclusive gated community of 165 residences, where Ken Griffin paid over $90 million for a nearby property in 2024.
Summary
The Wall Street Journal named a $4 million storybook cottage in Carmel Highlands, California, as House of the Year. Legendary architect MJ Murphy designed the 1925 home, which features early twentieth-century storybook architecture with curved rooflines and stone chimneys. Flora Mora purchased it in November 2025, unaware that the WSJ had featured it as house of the week in September and that readers had voted it their favorite in the year-end poll.
The property had been owned by John and Beth Needle for four decades. John died three years ago, and Beth, now in her eighties, listed the home in June after she could no longer use it as much. The initial WSJ feature drew three interested parties, though only one scheduled a showing that did not convert to a sale. The price dropped from $4.7 million to $4 million before Mora's purchase.
The design centers on signature features such as 10-by-10-foot windows with recessed seating nooks. Mora works in health care and owns an avocado ranch in San Diego. She said she had admired the home for years while driving past and plans to preserve the original structure while making minor updates.
At the opposite end of the market, a $140 million waterfront estate in Saint-Tropez, France, hit the market in late 2025. Art collector Andrea Priest is asking €115 million (roughly $140 million USD) for the roughly two-acre property in Les Parcs, the most exclusive community in the coastal town. The estate took eight years to build and was completed in late 2025. It includes a roughly 10,000-square-foot main house, a pool house, a 90-foot swimming pool, a private tennis court, eight bedrooms each with Mediterranean views, and a spa with steam sauna and hamam. A partially completed one-bedroom studio intended for a security guard remains unfinished. The property features approximately 8,600 square feet of terrace space and a gym with around $200,000 worth of equipment.
Priest founded Priest Fine Arts, an art photography gallery in Vienna. The gated community contains only 165 residences, with most homes sold privately rather than listed. Ken Griffin purchased a nearby estate on Tahiti Beach in 2024 for more than $90 million, roughly a seven-minute drive from Priest's listing.