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Why the Ultrarich Are Unplugging from "Smart Homes"

With wifi-enabled, voice-activated appliances too clever by half, analog, app-free abodes are suddenly tempting A-list L.A. buyers. Welcome to the new “Dumb House.”

People are looking for more manual, less complicated places to live,” says interior designer Jamie Bush, who has worked on some of Los Angeles’ most iconic architectural residences for studio heads, celebrities and tech titans. “The wife complained that every time she got up at night, her husband would see her path illuminated as she made her way from bed to bathroom,” says Livingston, who has worked with clients including Ralph Lauren, Gwyneth Paltrow and Dasha Zhukova. In today’s overly automated market, however, too much tech can be a massive turnoff,” says Pacific Sotheby’s real estate agent Gillian Flynn, who recently sold a 1912 Craftsman cottage in Cardiff-by-the Sea, a quiet beach town in North County San Diego that has attracted homeowners like Emily Ratajkowski, Switchfoot’s Jon Foreman and pro surfer Rob Machado.

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