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Nobody Wants to Buy Walt Disney’s Former Estate. But Don’t Blame the Economy.

A residential property once owned by the Disney family remains on the market, but we don’t think the economy’s to blame.

An expansive 5,000-acre luxe ranch situated eighty miles east of Jackson Hole, Wyoming, at the foothills of the Rockies in western Wyoming, is on the market, and it has been for a while now, despite its grandeur, its beauty, its amazing location, and its ties to the man behind the Mouse, Walt Disney.

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walt disney wearing cowboy hat

Credit: Disney

Just 23 miles from beautiful Yellowstone National Park lies a gorgeous, sprawling, 5,000-acre ranch. But this isn’t just any ranch. It’s a “luxe ranch” once owned by members of Walt Disney’s family.

Beginning in early 2020, as news of the coronavirus pandemic was just reaching–and personally affecting–the United States, luxe ranches began to enjoy a rise in popularity. “Luxe ranch” means exactly what it sounds like–a luxury ranch, one that’s very, as they say, “bougie.” Whether it’s because the pandemic awakened in some people the desire to return to a more laid-back life, closer to nature, and away from it all, or because the ebb and flow in real estate trends directed it, a new interest in these properties began to take hold that year, and even celebrity moguls were in on the trend.

Controversial musician and producer Kanye West and his ex-wife Kim Kardashian purchased one of these expansive luxury ranches in Wyoming, just 50 miles from Yellowstone National Park, for a reported $8 million in 2019. The property spans nearly 3,900 acres.

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kanye west ranch in wyoming

Credit: JP Auction Company

The once-Disney-family-owned estate in Wyoming, named Diamond G Ranch, rests in a wide valley surrounded by the vistas of 11,000-foot-high peaks on three sides. It also shares a border with a National Forest. The main structure features five bedrooms, and the property includes several guesthouses, including two log cabins and a three-bedroom, 1,500-square-foot house as well. There is also a log cabin house, a lake, and a five-mile section of DuNoir Creek on the estate.

And that’s just the beginning.

diamond g ranch wyoming disney

Credit: Hall & Hall

The property was once owned by the Disneys through a company called Retlaw Enterprises, (“Retlaw” is “Walter” spelled backward.) Walt Disney formed the company so he could license his name and build Disneyland. At the time of Walt’s death in 1966, Retlaw Enterprises was under the ownership of his heirs.

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The property was originally listed with a selling price of $71 million, but recently, the price was reduced by $10 million. So why the heck hasn’t the property sold?

The go-to answer in this day and time is “the economy,” but recent property sales records indicate that might not be the case, as scores of properties have sold in the last year–and we’re talking properties that sold for more than the asking price for the Diamond G Ranch.

In 2022, co-founder of Microsoft, Paul Allen, sold his New York City apartments for $101 million–$41 million more than the asking price for Disney’s Diamond G Ranch. The Upper East Side properties reportedly offered gorgeous views of Central Park, and the perks of, as they say, “location, location, location.”

Late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and 4 East 66th Street (Getty Images, Google Maps, iStock)

Credit: The Real Deal

In late 2022, the founder of the hedge fund company Citadel, Ken Griffin, showered his employees with magic when he shut down the parks and picked up the tab for an all-expenses paid trip to Disney World. But he saved some of the magic for himself and purchased a four-acre, Mediterranean-style mansion in Miami, Florida, for $106.9 million. The purchase was the first nine-figure residential property sale for the Greater Miami Area.

ken griffin citadel founder new home in miami

In 2022, co-founder and CEO of Snapchat, Evan Spiegel, purchased a huge Los Angeles estate called Holmby Hills for a reported $120 million. The mansion boasts a 20+ car garage, a two-story library, and a massive formal dining room.

los angeles mansion estate

Credit: MLS

And in June 2022, Larry Ellison, co-founder, executive chairman, and chief technology officer of the computer technology company Oracle Corporation, purchased an estate on a barrier island south of Palm Beach, Florida, called Manalapan. The estate boasts nearly 85,000 square feet of living space. Across the estate, there are 33 bedrooms, 34 bathrooms, and 13 “powder rooms,” as well as a seven-bedroom guesthouse, a PGA-standard golf practice area, a regulation tennis court, a half basketball court, a freshwater pond, an 18-hole miniature golf course, a boat dock, a bird sanctuary, and a butterfly garden.

larry ellison estate manalapan, florida

Credit: American Luxury

There are also two cottages on the beach, as well as a manager’s house, and all are connected by a series of finished underground tunnels on the property. At a purchase price of $173 million, it was the most expensive real estate purchase in the history of the Sunshine State.

Maybe it’s the size. Maybe it’s that it’s Wyoming. Maybe it’s because it’s a ranch. For whatever reason, the Diamond G Ranch, once owned by Walt Disney, simply hasn’t clicked with a potential buyer yet. But with all the residential property purchases in the United States in the last year, it doesn’t seem like the economy is the culprit. Perhaps fans in search of that level of Disney nostalgia simply can’t bring that level of cash to back their contracts.

About Becky Burkett

Becky's from the Lone Star State and has been writing since she was 10 and encountered her first Disney Park when she was 11. It was love at first Main Street Electrical Parade. Joy is blank lined journals, 0.7 mm pens, and all things Walt, Woody and Buzz, PIXAR, Imagineering, Sleeping Beauty (make it blue!), Disney Parks history and EPCOT. At Disney World, you'll find her croonin' with the birdies at the Enchanted Tiki Room or hangin' with Woody and the gang at Toy Story Land. If you can dream, you really can do it!