Elon Musk Is Inching Closer to Record-Breaking $500 Billion Net Worth—but His Home Is Worth a Tiny Fraction of That

The world’s richest man, Elon Musk is poised to achieve yet another record-breaking level of wealth as his net worth inches ever closer to a historic $500 billion, per the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Just one week after the Tesla founder‘s fortune cemented his place in the history books when he became the first person to achieve a net worth of more than $400 billion on Dec. 11, he has now exceeded that amount, with his current net worth sitting at a staggering $458 billion.

However, while Musk, 53, enjoys a level of wealth that most would not even dare to dream of, his property portfolio tells a very different story.

Despite multiple reports suggesting that the billionaire father of 11 is buying up megamansions and compounds from Florida to Texas, the only property he is confirmed to have owned and lived in over the past few years is an incredibly modest three-bedroom, ranch-style house that sits just a block from his SpaceX Starbase facility in the Brownsville, TX, neighborhood of Boca Chica.

The businessman revealed that he had moved into the property in 2021, stating in a post on X—which he now owns—that he was renting the $50,000 home from SpaceX.

“My primary home is literally a ~$50K house in Boca Chica/Starbase that I rent from SpaceX. It’s kinda awesome though,” he said. The only other house he owned at the time was an “events house” in the San Francisco Bay Area.

The Boca Chica home Musk was referring to is located on a grassy street that runs down to the perimeter of Starbase and has several similar properties dotting it.

It serves as his primary residence, a status that was reconfirmed in November when Musk visited a nearby polling station to cast his vote in the 2024 presidential election, having spent months campaigning on behalf of Republican candidate Donald Trump.

Before Musk began work on Starbase in 2014, Boca Chica was known primarily as a sleepy coastal town with a small population that was largely made up of retirees. However, interest in the area soon soared as hordes of SpaceX employees set up shop there. The company built multiple homes in the area, as well as the enormous Starbase facility.

He then doubled down on his commitment to the locale in July when he announced that he is relocating both SpaceX and X from California to the Brownsville area.

The news was met with much excitement from Brownsville Mayor John Cowen Jr., who voiced his delight at having Musk help to put the area “on the map.”

“That is fantastic news,” Cowen said in a statement. “I think it will just continue the investment in the region. It puts us on the map at a much bigger level now that we have the headquarters of the most valuable aerospace company in the world.

“I think that is a feather in our hat that we will be able to say that we have that in our region and it will just create more opportunity for our residents and our businesses.”

SpaceX already has a launch site in Boca Chica. However, after its relocation, it will increase the number of launches and landings to 25 annually, according to a press release from Cowen’s office.

Musk’s ability to draw global attention to Brownsville was made clear on Nov. 19, when President-elect Trump traveled to the area to join Musk for the launch of SpaceX’s Starship rocket system.

However, his Texas takeover has not been without criticism, particularly from some locals who say that their once-quiet beachside lifestyle has been turned upside down as a result of SpaceX launches and Starbase work.

Musk has been accused of damaging the local environment with the expansion of SpaceX, according to the New York Times, and has also been blamed for increasing house prices in the area as more people begin to view it as a burgeoning metropolis.

However, one local official, Eddie Trevino Jr., told the Times that while some locals believe the impact of Musk’s business expansions is “unforgivable,” he believes the “pros outweigh the cons” in benefits to the area—and its economy.

“We’ve been looking and fighting and striving for better-paying jobs for generations,” he went on.

The mayor told the Times that Musk’s eponymous foundation has also pledged about $10 million to redeveloping Brownsville’s historic downtown area, which has seen a boom in new businesses of late, including hotels, coffee shops, and restaurants.

“It’s a win-win,” Cowen said. “We have two French restaurants downtown now.”

And that’s not the only area in Texas that he’s focused on. Musk has been investing heavily in Austin real estate for his Tesla headquarters, which he moved to the outskirts of the Texas city from its original base in California in December 2021.

In October, reports emerged that he was planning to build a $35 million compound in the Texas city, where he was allegedly planning to house all 11 of his children, as well as at least two of their three mothers.

Musk has welcomed 12 children since 2002; however, his firstborn died of sudden infant death syndrome at just 10 weeks old.

He went on to father five more children with his first wife, Justine Wilson: transgender daughter Vivian, from whom he is estranged, and her twin, Griffin, both now 20; and triplets Saxon, Damian, and Kai.

The entrepreneur then welcomed three children with singer Grimes between 2020 and 2022, X Æ A-Xii, 4, who is known as “X”; Exa Dark Sideræl, 2, who is known as “Y”; and Techno Mechanicus, who was born in 2022 and goes by “Tau.”

He shares his other three kids with Shivon Zillis, an executive at his company, Neuralink.

The Times claimed that the businessman had purchased three mansions in the Austin area—for a total of $35 million—and that he had “told people close to him in recent months” that he believed the arrangement would allow his younger children to “be a part of one another’s lives,” while enabling him to “schedule time among them.”

Musk later denied these claims.

In December, rumors started to spread that he was considering buying a property in Florida, not too far from Trump’s infamous Mar-a-Lago resort.

The Miami Herald reported that speculation was “going around that the titan … is looking at late beauty mogul Sydell Miller’s penthouse in the luxury Bristol building” in Palm Beach.

According to local reports, Miller’s family was “mulling” the idea of selling the 19,000-square-foot apartment, with estimates suggesting that it could go for anywhere upward of $100 million.

Musk has yet to comment or confirm any of these reports.