Where Does Elon Musk Live? A Look at the World's First Trillionaire's Properties
Elon Musk is not a man who does things by half measures. The CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, and X — and the first person in history to amass a net worth exceeding one trillion dollars — has made headlines for as many unconventional life choices as he has for business disruptions. One of the most talked-about? His living arrangements. From publicly renouncing his lavish California mansion portfolio to reportedly sleeping on a friend's couch in Texas, Musk's relationship with real estate is as fascinating as the man himself. So, where exactly does Elon Musk live today, and what properties does he own or use? Let's take a deep dive into the residences and real estate connected to the world's most recognizable entrepreneur.
Elon Musk's Primary Residence: Boca Chica, Texas
In a move that shocked observers who expected billionaires to favor Beverly Hills penthouses or Manhattan skyscrapers, Musk announced in 2020 that he was leaving California and relocating to Texas. His stated primary residence became a modest, prefabricated home in Boca Chica, a small unincorporated community on the southernmost tip of Texas, right at the US-Mexico border. The home — a Boxabl Casita unit — is estimated to have cost around $50,000, a stark contrast to the hundreds of millions in California real estate he was selling off at around the same time.
The reason for being in Boca Chica is no mystery: it is the home of SpaceX's Starbase launch facility, where the company is developing and testing its Starship rocket — the most powerful launch vehicle ever built. Musk has described wanting to be close to the action, and living on-site at Boca Chica certainly achieves that. The location has since grown into something far more significant than a simple company launch pad.
Starbase: Elon Musk's SpaceX City
Perhaps the most extraordinary property development linked to Elon Musk is not a house at all — it is an entire city. Starbase, Texas officially became an incorporated city in 2025 after a vote among local residents, the vast majority of whom are SpaceX employees. The city sits on land largely owned or controlled by SpaceX and covers the Boca Chica area where Musk has his small home.
The creation of Starbase represents something genuinely unprecedented: a private company town, purpose-built to support humanity's ambitions in space exploration. With its own local governance, the city gives SpaceX — and by extension Musk — a remarkable degree of influence over local planning and development decisions. Critics have raised concerns about the concentration of power this arrangement creates, while supporters argue it is a logical extension of SpaceX's mission to build a self-sustaining civilization on Mars, starting with a model community on Earth.
Starbase features employee housing, facilities, and the sprawling launch complex where Starship tests have captivated the world. For Musk, it is more than a home base — it is a living prototype for the kind of settlement he envisions one day existing on the Red Planet.
Austin, Texas Properties
Beyond Boca Chica, Musk has ties to Austin, where Tesla's headquarters relocated in 2021 after moving from Palo Alto, California. The Austin metropolitan area — specifically the suburb of Pflugerville — is where Tesla's massive Gigafactory Texas, also known as Giga Texas, operates. Musk has been linked to properties in the Austin area, and multiple reports suggest he spends significant time there given Tesla's ongoing operations and the booming Texas tech scene that has grown up around the company's presence.
Austin has become a hub for the new wave of tech migration out of Silicon Valley, and Musk is widely credited with accelerating that trend. His presence in the city, however informal, has helped cement Austin's status as a major player in the American technology industry.
The California Sell-Off: What Musk Left Behind
To understand where Musk lives now, it helps to understand what he walked away from. Before his high-profile move to Texas, Musk owned an impressive collection of luxury properties in California, primarily in the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles. His holdings included a sprawling estate in Bel-Air estimated to be worth tens of millions of dollars, as well as several neighboring properties he had acquired over the years to expand the compound.
In 2020, Musk made his intentions clear on social media, stating that he intended to sell nearly all physical possessions, including his houses. True to his word, he proceeded to list and sell off his California portfolio over the following years. The move was part philosophical statement — Musk publicly questioned whether accumulating property was meaningful — and part practical relocation to align himself physically with his most ambitious ventures in Texas and Florida.
Other Locations: SpaceX in Florida and Beyond
SpaceX also maintains a significant launch presence at Cape Canaveral in Florida, where NASA missions and commercial launches regularly take place. Musk has been known to stay in Florida during major launch events, and reports have linked him to accommodations in that area, though no permanent Florida residence has been publicly confirmed.
Similarly, his global travel schedule — covering Tesla gigafactories in Germany, China, and Nevada, as well as X's San Francisco offices — means Musk is rarely in any one place for long. His residency, in the conventional sense, remains Texas.
What Elon Musk's Living Choices Tell Us
Elon Musk's approach to housing is, intentionally or not, a statement in itself. By choosing a tiny prefab home over a trophy mansion, and by anchoring himself to the dusty, remote landscape of South Texas, Musk has aligned his personal life with his stated mission: building the future of space travel. Whether one views it as authentic commitment or carefully crafted image-making, the choice to live inside a company town he is helping to build — a literal SpaceX city — is unlike anything seen from a business leader before. For the world's first trillionaire, home is not a symbol of accumulated wealth. It is a launchpad.