Looking at All of Elon Musk's Past Homes, and Why the Billionaire Decided to Downsize
Published Jan. 3 2024, 12:28 p.m. ET
The world has been following Elon Musk’s professional activities for years. The billionaire put long-range batteries in electric cars for the first time, and increased the demand for green vehicles while allegedly pushing workplace safety boundaries to break records.
Real estate may not be the first thing you think of when Musk comes to mind — these days, his controversies have overshadowed his work with Tesla and SpaceX — but fans and industry enthusiasts are still interested in learning about the villainous CEO's various homes.
Read on for everything you need to know about Elon Musk’s houses, and to learn how you could invest differently or approach the market with a new perspective.
Elon Musk’s houses: What we know about the billionaire’s homes.
In early 2020, Elon Musk decided to sell all his homes and tweeted his intentions to live without owning a house. Whether he meant that he would rent his living space or not, he has since sold numerous U.S. properties and downsized to a $50,000 tiny home in Texas, according to the Observer.
The move likely benefited him in numerous ways. Selling multi-million dollar properties while making strategic business decisions helped him become the world’s richest person in 2021, as published in Forbes. It’s also a practice people of all income levels use to manage their mental health more effectively.
Downsizing reduces the potential for clutter in your life and minimizes daily responsibilities like vacuuming, yardwork, and household cleaning, as noted by Cross Keys Village — though it's unlikely that someone like Musk would personally be responsible for those tasks.
Instead of maintaining a large property filled with goods, you only have to manage a small home and some essentials that make life enjoyable.
Take a deep dive into the properties Musk sold to better understand how his life changed. You’ll know what downsizing can look like and why life is still fulfilling when you live with less.
2012: Musk bought a $17 million Bel-Air Mansion.
As Musk gained notoriety and wealth, he bought a $17 million mansion in the Los Angeles neighborhood Bel-Air in 2012, per The Los Angeles Times. He’d been renting the property for a few years while living there with his sons. It included features like a movie theater, wine cellar, and two-story library. He flipped it for a profit when it sold to another billionaire in 2020 for $29 million, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Elon Musk has also owned other houses in the Bel-Air area. As noted in Money and The Real Deal, he bought four other mansions in the same zip code for $72 million combined, and sold them for a slight profit to luxury real estate developer Ardie Tavangarian.
2013: He purchased Gene Wilder’s former Bel-Air home.
As reported by The Wall Street Journal, Musk bought Gene Wilder’s home for $6.75 million in 2013 while getting into Bel-Air real estate. The same article cited that he sold it back to Wilder’s nephew on the condition that no significant renovations occur on the property to maintain its original "soul."
2014: He bought his Boomerang house in Brentwood.
A growing real estate portfolio had fans asking where Elon Musk’s house was. While he could have lived in any of his properties, he took up residence in a boomerang-shaped mansion in Brentwood, Calif.
Forbes noted that the sustainably-built home featured drought-tolerant landscaping, a tankless water heater, and other eco-friendly features that matched the billionaire’s climate-friendly business models. He made a slight profit in the sale and moved to a smaller residence in Texas.
2020: He started living in his tiny home in Boca Chica.
By 2020, rumor had it that Musk was living in Austin, Texas, in a lake house owned by one of his friends. Although he mentioned in a Tesla shareholders meeting that he was staying there, Musk later clarified with Business Insider that he wasn’t living there and was searching elsewhere in Texas for permanent housing.
He has since downsized enough to live in his tiny home in Boca Chica, Texas. Made by Boxabl, his Casita model has 375 square feet and includes a bedroom, living room, bathroom, kitchen and an area for a washer and dryer set.
The energy-efficient house is much more environmentally friendly than large mansions, aligning Musk’s private life with his sustainable business practices.
Get inspired by Elon Musk’s tiny house.
Many people enjoy learning about the houses owned by Elon Musk and other sustainable celebrities because they’re inspiring. Someone who owned and lived in mansions still chose to downsize to a tiny home. It shows you don’t need wealth or expensive belongings to live a comfortable life.
