The most expensive home listing in San Diego took a price cut, but it's still far and away the priciest listing in the city's history.
The 13,000-square-foot mansion, nicknamed the Sand Castle, is on the Pacific Ocean in the La Jolla neighborhood of San Diego. After a few price adjustments — it was first listed in October 2024 for $108 million — it's now on the market for $87.5 million.
The home belonged to the late tech billionaire Darwin Deason, who founded Affiliated Computer Services, an IT company he sold to Xerox in 2009 for $6.4 billion. He died in December 2025.
Even after the $20 million price cut, the estate, if sold at that price, would nearly double the previous San Diego record, set by the private equity billionaire Egon Durban, who spent $44.1 million on a property in 2023.
Deason was inspired by the French Palace of Versailles and Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc, a five-star hotel in the South of France that's a favorite of celebrities. The house's ornate details include glittering chandeliers, gold-accented ceilings, mosaics, marble floors, and antique statues.
For all the work Deason put into the sand-colored, balcony-laden mansion, the price tag is understandable. After buying the original house and a neighboring parcel of land for $26 million, he spent about $60 million turning the property into what it is today, The Wall Street Journal reported.
However, the original $108 million price tag was hard for buyers in San Diego to stomach, said Compass agent Brett Dickinson, who has the listing along with Ross Clark.
"Buyers are very conscious of being the first person to buy a property in San Diego over $100 million — that would be a very big deal," Dickinson told Mansion Global. "So when you're trying to break that barrier, sometimes $100 million is too high psychologically for the first person to do that. Now if we're below $100 million, we all of a sudden become accessible."
The Sand Castle is one of the more distinctive homes in the area, and it offers private oceanfront, which is rare in San Diego.
"In the history of La Jolla, there has never been and will never be another property built on the waterfront like the Sand Castle," Dickinson and Clark told Business Insider via email in 2024.
Take a look inside.
Dan Latu contributed to a previous version of this story.
The property contains a seven-bedroom main house and a three-bedroom guest house inspired by Versailles’ Le Petit Trianon.
The main house has a two-story entry hall, a wraparound terrace, and an oval-shaped dining room that seats 16 under a 19th-century crystal chandelier.
The fireplaces throughout the main house were imported from France.
The home has several custom mosaics by New Ravenna.
There are 10 bedrooms. The primary bedroom suite features its own oceanfront terrace, private study, and separate his-and-her bathrooms.
Nearly every piece of furniture in the home was custom made.
There are 18- and 24-karat gold details throughout the mansion, which has 14 full bathrooms and three half-bathrooms.
A nautical-themed bar is a nod to Deason's yacht, Apogee, the New York Post reported.
The bar has walnut finishings, onyx marble, and 18th-century mermaid statues.
The mansion also has a pool and a fitness center.
The pool is lined with blue Thassos marble tiles, per Bloomberg.
The mansion has two cabanas: One for men and one for women.
The Sand Castle house also has a beachfront kitchen.
An elevator whisks residents and guests down to the private beach, which is elevated 10 feet above the ground.
For the private beach, Deason imported soft white sand from Augusta National Golf Club, which hosts the Masters Tournament. He told the Wall Street Journal he spent $40,000 on the sand alone.
The listing agents said the Sand Castle's custom seawall and direct beach access couldn't be replicated today given state building standards.
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Alcynna Lloyd is a real estate reporter with Business Insider. She writes about homebuying behavior, tiny homes, multi-generational housing, migration trends, and housing affordability.Prior to joining Business Insider, Lloyd was the Digital Media Manager at HousingWire.Do you have feedback or a tip? Find her on X/Twitter, LinkedIn, or email [email protected]. Some of her articles include:
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Jordan reports on moving trends — from remote work to house hacking. He also writes about movers struggling with issues around relocating like buyer's remorse and the many intricacies of moving to an unfamiliar state. He also has stories focusing on property technology and in 2022, moderated a panel on fractional investing at real estate technology conference Blueprint. Before Insider, he covered luxury real estate in South Florida for The Real Deal. He holds a Master's degree in Magazine Writing from New York University and a Bachelor's degree in English from Florida State University.
