“She sells serene southwesterly sunsets by the seashore.”

6204 Camino de la Costa| La Jolla, 92037

Current owner: LES Realty | Listing price: $18,500,000 | Beds: 4 | Baths: 6 | House size: 5400

Regular readers of Unreal may recall that I opened our last installment by taking notice of (griping about?) the fact that a plurality of the listings we discuss on this page come from just a handful of wealthy enclaves in San Diego. While that’s still true this week, I’d like to drill down even further, and acknowledge that certain select areas of these already select neighborhoods also seem to come up more than others.

Consider Camino De La Costa, billed as La Jolla’s “Street of Dreams” by its wealthy denizens, and, even more frequently by the real estate agents they hire to sell their eight-figure mansions. The street runs along the cliffs of Lower Hermosa between Bird Rock and La Jolla Village, and we’ve already profiled at least three oceanfront homes along this roughly five-block stretch, making it the most-visited street in this column’s nine-year history.

The kitchen: neat but not gaudy.

So, does this intro mean we’re going back for more? Well, since those of you who send me suggestions keep pointing me in that direction, I suppose it does. Give the people what they want! This week, we’re headed to 6204; the Zillow listing’s opener promises us a “traditional oceanfront residence offering direct beach access and a serene seaside setting showcasing incomparable southwesterly views of the ocean, sunsets, and coastline.” That’s some great alliteration, though a few extra words cost us the excellent opportunity to “showcase southwesterly sunsets from our serene seaside setting.” Oh well; onward: “Exceedingly private and expansive, you will enter through an idyllic garden courtyard sheltered by manicured landscaping and seemingly into another world,” the listing continues. And from an aerial view early in the photo gallery, we can certainly see a heavy growth of shrubbery hiding the home from the street, with a wood gate posted between stone posts sealing off access to the front lawn.

Once inside, we get some shots of a perfectly serviceable living room and dining area — though the space here seems to belie the almost 5400 square feet of living space stated in the listing. More than the rooms themselves, what we notice is that almost every window is looking out on the ocean, including those situated in a pleasant sitting-area kind of space that doesn’t look like it’s part of the main living room. It features a wraparound window bench for looking at the whitewater breakers, clearly visible just below. I’ve said spots like this would make for great reading retreats in other houses we’ve looked at, and I’ll say it again about this one. (Someday, someone will explain why a great view isn’t necessarily distracting, but actually helps you pay attention to the words on the page.)

The “fully-equipped chef’s kitchen” seems nice, but not so pretentious as to be out of place in a home that might simply be referred to as upper middle-class. The listing also promises “two flex spaces which can be customized to best suit your needs,” but I’m unclear where these are. There’s a shot of a tiny room with just enough space for two large chairs and a TV that follows our look at the kitchen — is this what we’re talking about? Maybe that reading nook?

The main bedroom upstairs seems spacious enough, and reportedly occupies the whole top floor, which means there is room for a few overstuffed chairs in addition to the typical bedroom furniture. There are two private decks: one overlooking the bigger cliffside deck below and another looking toward the front courtyard. The bath features a big soaking tub with more windows, along with a separate shower and a separate dressing room with lots of built-in storage. And there’s another of those window-adjacent daybed-benches about which I’ve already said nice things.

From the main suite, we pass through some more adequately-sized bedrooms, but it’s when we get to one of the downstairs baths with its old-fashioned claw foot tub and metal-framed sink that I finally think to check the construction date — 1935! Okay, that explains why these rooms seem small, and why there are so many of them; this home predates the “open concept living” trend by decades. It’s just that most of it has been so thoroughly updated that I wasn’t recognizing the traditional-style hinted at by the old bones.

The next couple photos, the ones showing the “wood-encased library,” bring the history of the home to light. All of these built-in bookcases, some adorned with what look like leaded glass doors, definitely add a vintage feel to the home. Why did they wait so long to show us these? Now I understand the “timeless design” we were promised earlier. But I’m confused as to whether the modern or vintage aesthetic dominates, and by the way they seem to exist almost independently from one another as we pass from room to room.

Before leaving, we also get to visit a big sunken family room with a fireplace and wood-paneled ceilings, along with a bonus room that’s empty save for a pool table and tiny bistro set tucked into a corner. Another en-suite bedroom on the ground floor is being used as an office, and from there a pair of French doors lead us outside. Ah, outside: “Numerous ocean-facing decks and flagstone patios present the perfect environment for relaxing, enjoying the sound of the surf, and the extraordinary, ever-changing coastal scenery before you,” the listing continues. As a bonus, we get a private set of stairs to the cove beach below, which we must of course climb before leaving if we don’t want to swim to the next public access point.

Public records list an LES Realty partnership based in Houston as the home’s current owner; the last publicly reported sale was in 2006 for $12 million, more than double the amount it sold for just two years prior to that. MLS records show another sale in 2009 for a reported $10.4 million. If correct, this would track with the across-the-board tumble that housing prices took in the late aughts.

Attempts in 2019 to either sell the home for $13.6 million or rent it for $10,000 per month do not appear to have been successful, and the Camino De La Costa mansion sat off-market following those listings until it was re-listed in mid-February, this time carrying an asking price of $18.5 million that remains unchanged to date.