Elon Musk, the world’s wealthiest person, said his main home is now a three-bedroom property that he bought for $45,000, chiefly for its location in Boca Chica, Texas, near his SpaceX facility.
“It cost like $45,000 or something,” Musk said on the Full Send podcast, which aired late Thursday. “It’s very small.”
The home is within walking distance of the facility where SpaceX is working on building “a giant rocket,” Musk added. He noted that he also has a Boxable tiny home in Boca Chica, which he uses as a guest house for friends who come to visit.
Musk, who is worth an estimated $268 billion, has long drawn attention for his unusual lifestyle, such as a recent report that he had twins with of his top executives last year, or roughly around the time he had a second child with the musician Grimes.
“Friends of mine come and they can’t believe I’m staying in this house,” Musk said in the podcast. Asked if he likes staying there, Musk responded, “If I’m there by myself, it’s fine.”
The home was originally a two-bedroom property, but Musk said he converted the garage into a third bedroom. He added that he’s trying to change the name of the street from Weems Street to Meme Street.
That $45,000 price tag is extremely low for a U.S. home, with the median listing price reaching $450,000 in June, according to Realtor.com. Musk didn’t mention when the house was bought, which could have occurred prior to the run-up in home prices during the pandemic.
One property currently for sale on Weems Street, a 1,000-square foot home listed as a “fixer upper” for “SpaceX enthusiasts,” is listed for $375,000.
Musk hasn’t always lived in a modest home. The billionaire reportedly held a real estate portfolio worth $100 million at one point, although in 2020 he declared on Twitter that he was selling his properties and vowed to “own no house.”
In December, it was reported Musk was actually living in an Austin mansion owned by Ken Howery, according to the Wall Street Journal. Howery, who co-founded PayPal along with Musk and others, bought the 8,000-square-foot home in 2018 for $12 million, when it was the most expensive property in Austin, according to Forbes.
