Elon Musk's $50K TX house is a humble prefab home that can be towed by a Model X
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has mentioned that he now lives in a ~$50K house at Starbase, Texas, where his private space company, SpaceX, is manufacturing its Starships. Based on images of the home, it appears that the Tesla and SpaceX CEO is indeed living modestly in a prefabricated housing unit that's only about 400 square feet.
Teslarati recently received a tip noting that Elon Musk's housing unit in Starbase, Texas is a Boxabl Casita, a foldable, prefabricated home designed for quick installations and maximum affordability. A 20×20 unit such as the one that Elon Musk reportedly owns is priced at only $50,000, less than the cost of a Model Y Long Range Dual Motor AWD. The Boxabl Casita is durable, too, being made of concrete panels and steel. It could be installed very quickly and transported easily, as well, with the home being light enough to be pulled by a vehicle like a Model X.
[...] The Boxabl Casita is designed to be customizable with different finishes and configurations. Yet a look at Elon Musk's apparent housing unit in Starbase shows that the CEO only opted for a base unit. Musk did mention that he has installed improvements to the home that would probably make it worth about $69,000 today, but even such an amount is less than the cost of a base Tesla Model S. The Casita is classic Elon Musk in the way that it's different and practical, though the idea that the 20×20 unit may be home to the world's third-richest person is very compelling. People with a net worth of $172 billion, after all, typically live in lavish properties.
(Score: 0, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 24 2021, @03:25AM (6 children)
Insufficient Vespene Gas!
(Score: 3, Funny) by mhajicek on Thursday June 24 2021, @05:23AM
You must construct additional pylons.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 2) by Tork on Thursday June 24 2021, @06:49AM (4 children)
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 24 2021, @09:39AM (1 child)
In the pipe, 5 by 5....
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 25 2021, @03:31PM
Nuclear launch detected...
Shiiiiit!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 25 2021, @12:05AM (1 child)
Probably something to do with Tesla manufacturing electric cars and therefore Musk has no "gas" to use to purchase a bigger place.
(Score: 2) by Tork on Friday June 25 2021, @12:38AM
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 0, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 24 2021, @03:29AM (4 children)
For starters: I have a joke about trickle down economy, but 99% of you will never get it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 24 2021, @03:41AM (1 child)
How about another joke, Murray? No, I think we've had enough of your jokes.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 24 2021, @07:18AM
What do you get when you cross a mentally ill coder with a SOCIETY that ABANDONS him and treats him like TRASH?
I'll tell you what you get
YOU GET WHAT YOU FUCKING DESERVE!
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 24 2021, @09:22AM (1 child)
If Musk doesn't spend, how can the participants in a service based economy can earn?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 25 2021, @12:14AM
They can suck his dick for tips.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 24 2021, @03:46AM
And lavish properties are close to civilization, and thanks to Jewish Terrorists granting free reign for Jewish Antifa and BLM supporters, formerly livable cities like Austin are now unlivable due to BLM shootings (and cry me a fucking river because the hipster faggots living there overwhelmingly are in favor of BLM and defunding police). So it makes sense that living in a small home in rural obscure safety beats living in a trendy apartment or gated community in downtown driveby-ville where the biggest game in town is the knockout game.
It also indicates a relatively light investment lost when the Jews at Blackrock and Vanguard force residents out of any given neighborhood with the crimes they fund.
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 24 2021, @04:01AM (6 children)
The difference between Musk and most of the rest of us is that he paid cash.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 24 2021, @04:27AM (2 children)
Someone modded this off topic -- go figure. Do we have a Musk shill here?
(Score: 3, Touché) by takyon on Thursday June 24 2021, @04:42AM
Just an asshole, probably.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by Tork on Thursday June 24 2021, @06:52AM
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Thursday June 24 2021, @02:09PM (1 child)
You too could pay cash for your home, if you already own one, sell it, and buy another. It's not really a buyer's market where I'm at, though. Considering you're likely to be paying $10k+ more than the asking price, because so many people are buying right now.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 24 2021, @03:19PM
Only 10K? The house I bought ~10 years ago for less than $200K jumped (based on neighborhood comparable sales) to about $350K in the last 6 months.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 25 2021, @04:28PM
I would have thought he used Bitcoin instead! :P
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Frosty Piss on Thursday June 24 2021, @04:12AM (21 children)
It is unlikely that Musk lives *exclusively* in this “tiny house” …
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 24 2021, @04:25AM
Of course not, there is more floor space in his Gulfstream than in this modular house--
https://www.superyachtfan.com/private-jet/owner/elon-musk/ [superyachtfan.com]
I'm sure he has a toothbrush and clothes in both.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 24 2021, @04:28AM
He stepped in it long enough for a photo op. Bravo! My hero.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by takyon on Thursday June 24 2021, @04:43AM (16 children)
I don't remember all the lore, but he's been shedding properties [vanityfair.com] and maybe wants to die poor. Possibly ending up dead on Mars.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Thursday June 24 2021, @04:57AM (5 children)
We all wind up dead, you know. Some dead in gutters, some dead in mansions, some dead in the wilderness. Dead on Mars doesn't sound so bad, when you think about it.
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
(Score: 4, Touché) by Tork on Thursday June 24 2021, @06:56AM (4 children)
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by Freeman on Thursday June 24 2021, @02:12PM
Then you'll just wish you were dead on Mars.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Thursday June 24 2021, @03:56PM (1 child)
The Russian solution to that is a pair of pliers.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 24 2021, @07:27PM
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday June 24 2021, @11:23PM
Even on Mars, shovels work.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 24 2021, @05:20AM (7 children)
Who wouldn't want to make Mars their final destination? Amazing view of the night's sky, low gravity for those achy bones, communal living after your friends have long since departed - one way or the other, and a culture with more than a passing interest in gardening and planetary development.
To say nothing of being a part of what may ultimately be the single most important step in the evolution of humanity. Even as we set out to cross the seas, we could look on at the birds and the sky, and even further above them to the stars in the sky. Space, so far as we understand, really is the final frontier. And once humanity has conquered this frontier - we will have finally all but ensured the existence of our species.
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Thursday June 24 2021, @05:27AM (2 children)
In 200 years tourists to the capitol of Mars will visit Musk's tomb.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 24 2021, @05:31AM
or not...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 24 2021, @03:50PM
I presume you're talking about a franchise of space-based theme parks that President
TrumpMusk leased his name to.(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 24 2021, @09:20AM (2 children)
Why? A sack of shit dropped there will have a larger effect in terraforming Mars than a senile boomer.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday June 24 2021, @11:25PM (1 child)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 25 2021, @12:19AM
So they do have a use. Humanure farming.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 24 2021, @03:51PM
Your mom. Actually true.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Thursday June 24 2021, @12:29PM (1 child)
With that much cash on hand, you can rent a staffed but otherwise private Caribbean island on a whim, charter a jet + helicopter to go there, stay as long as you like, bring in friends from around the world, then return "home" when you want.
I think part of Musk and the Casita is the fold-out construction. I wouldn't be surprised if his Mars habitats are similarly sized and similarly pre-fabricated for easy assembly on site with compact shipping dimensions. When critics lob barbs about Mars immigrants being trapped in tiny houses Musk can fire back that he lived in a similarly sized house "for years" in Texas.
🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 24 2021, @03:52PM
He's so smart foiling the
SECnaysayers.(Score: 2) by richtopia on Thursday June 24 2021, @04:39PM (1 child)
He really lives at work. He is notorious for staying past midnight.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 25 2021, @12:21AM
When your office looks like Elon Musk's, with personal chef, sleeping quarters and Thai
hand-reliefmassage on demand, anyone would stay after midnight.(Score: 2) by DrkShadow on Thursday June 24 2021, @05:43AM (4 children)
The Super Yacht article on musk says,
https://www.superyachtfan.com/private-jet/owner/elon-musk/#next [superyachtfan.com]
It comes with tennis court in front of the attached guest house, shared pool (shared with the guest house), -- or maybe that "guest house" is actually his garage. Oops.
Yep, I'm sure he does own this prefab. Made for some good publicity. Maybe he'll pay someone to rent it out for him -- at half its value per month, because "Live in Elon Musk's house!" -- after he finishes moving a few things to the area.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 24 2021, @07:17AM (3 children)
According to takyon's link above Musk sold that house and a couple of others. The prefab in Boca Chica is because he needs somewhere to sleep while he's directing operations. It doesn't need to be fancy because he needs it for work not entertaining guests.
(Score: 3, Informative) by SunTzuWarmaster on Thursday June 24 2021, @12:01PM (1 child)
Honestly - this. He's somewhat famous for sleeping at the Tesla factory during crunchtime. Living in an onsite-400ftft-tinyHome is basically "sleeping at the office". He knew crunchtime was coming, sold his other homes, and is inbetween houses right now.
"$70K, unfoldable origami house, can be onsite tomorrow, option to tow to a new location" seems like a legitimate and sensible option when compared to "sleep at office" or "obtain a work trailer". May as well get the upgrades.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 24 2021, @02:06PM
Pretty much, he seems to be the kind of guy that likes to be at the current project he cares about. It's not that he can't afford better but he just likes to be where it is at at the moment.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 24 2021, @03:56PM
What do you think Elon Musk actually does? His entire existence is canoodling government for money and bullshitting starry eyed investors. That takes some serious shiny.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by MIRV888 on Thursday June 24 2021, @05:51AM (5 children)
It seems to me he's directly managing the rocket program on site.
How it that surprising? Sounds like he's living a SPAM honestly.
For one person that would be pretty comfortable.
I don't know this guy. He may be batsh1t crazy or not, but he is clearly motivated to achieve his goals.
So far he's doing a pretty good job of that.
Howard Hughes was nuttier than squirrel sh1t and he accomplished a whole lot.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 24 2021, @09:25AM (2 children)
Howard Hughes was nuttier than squirrel sh1t and he accomplished a whole lot.
Those manganese nodules? Still at the bottom of the ocean.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 24 2021, @10:19AM
I blame the CIA.
(Score: 2) by MIRV888 on Friday June 25 2021, @02:13AM
Well that and a half of a soviet sub.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday June 24 2021, @04:43PM (1 child)
Sorry, what's "living a SPAM"? Google is, naturally, useless when searching for SPAM.
🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 3, Informative) by MIRV888 on Friday June 25 2021, @02:16AM
Shelter expandable shop portable aircraft maintenance SPAM.
They collapse to a box that can rise on a flatbed or train.
We used them to service aircraft in the field.
(Score: 2) by darkfeline on Thursday June 24 2021, @10:22AM (5 children)
Houses are cheap, relatively speaking. Now, the land to put that house on, along with all of the accompanying taxes, utilities, upkeep...
Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!
(Score: 3, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Thursday June 24 2021, @11:20AM (4 children)
In nowhere Texas? Or Mars? The land cost is trivial. If you have ground water, and nearby grid electric service then utilities are cheap too, and taxes aren't so much outside urban areas in the US.
What changed in the last 20 years is the cost of broadband internet and high definition flat screens. Those two technologies make life in a modestly sized home far from any major city very different than it used to be.
🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Thursday June 24 2021, @02:27PM (3 children)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boca_Chica_(Texas)#Starbase [wikipedia.org]
Yeah, that's pretty much middle of nowhere Texas. Probably has pretty cheap taxes and utility. Housing market is screwed in the DFW area at least. Sure, you're likely able to buy a piece of land pretty cheap still, but anything with a house on it is selling for more than it's worth. Building your own is also super expensive with price of lumber going up, etc.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Thursday June 24 2021, @04:03PM
You're not kidding. I went to Home Depot a couple weeks ago to price out lumber for building self-watering garden boxes and walked right back out from sticker shock.
If a person wanted to build a home right now, building without lumber would be a good idea.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday June 24 2021, @04:41PM (1 child)
Hiring contractors to build your own is super expensive, as much because of the demand for housing construction labor as for the cost of lumber... I saw the other day that lumber is back down below $1000 per whatever unit it is that they benchmark it in... 40% off the peak high. Oil is still far below $100 per barrel. If you're buying the materials and doing the labor yourself, it's not nearly a big a change as the inflation in the existing housing market.
I feel like the recent economic spasm is far too large to be explained by the pandemic - to me it seems like the world was sort of holding its breath starting in 2017, cautiously spinning up "safe" economic activity to profit from the business friendly environment, but like the end of the Reagan era also holding back on commitments like long term hiring, new facility building, etc. The pandemic certainly magnified the collective conservative stance dramatically, and now that it is all over at one time this rush of hiring, relocation, etc. seems far beyond anything that could be explained by the stimulus packages.
🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 24 2021, @11:57PM
The Trump effect - the best.
(Score: 2) by looorg on Thursday June 24 2021, @10:23AM (6 children)
That is nice. That said how often is he really there? Often enough I guess. Or?
It's not like all the billionaires live in luxurious mansions etc. Buffet still lives in a somewhat normal house doesn't he? Sure it might be gold chandeliers inside or whatever but at least it's not a mansion (perhaps he has a gigantic evil lair in the basement).
It's one of those things one chitchats about from time to time, like what would you do if you won the lottery or sold your company/product for gazillions of dollars. I don't think having a gigantic mansion etc have ever been something I cared about. Having that much space just doesn't seem practical or useful. Not to mention you, or I guess then your servants, have to clean it. Would you want the mansion if you hit it big? Or did you get one when you did already?
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Thursday June 24 2021, @10:49AM (5 children)
Mansion, no. Space for all my books? Yes, please.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 24 2021, @11:33AM (1 child)
Laptops and tablets are where it's at, or e-readers for less eye strain.
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Saturday June 26 2021, @12:10PM
I do use an e-reader. For almost all books, when I want a new one I get it in electronic form and read it on my kobo. I would *really* like my kobo to me reprogrammable so I could set up different indexing structures, but it remains the way it is.
There are a few kinds of books for which the electronic version doesn't work well: art books (for which the colour gambit and spatial resolution are inadequate) and mathematics books (which often have lines like "Substituting in equation 5-19, but by the time you've found equation 5-19 (there's sometimes even an internal link in a pdf) you discover that the book-viewing software doesn't have a back button.)
Of course if ebooks had been common 60 years ago I might never have accumulated the thousands of books that are taking up all the space in my remote storage cell. Yes, I do often remember specific books that I want to read again or refer to again, and they're inaccessible. And there's no easy magic spell that will transport thousands of paper books onto a hard drive.
Anyone know of a practical e-ink ebook reader that is user reprogrammable? And maybe even uses free/libre software? I haven't found one.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Thursday June 24 2021, @12:37PM (2 children)
I believe that's the trend behind the American McMansion bloom of the last 50 years... accumulation of stuff. Back in the 1980s it was "he who dies with the most toys wins." After that it became "retail therapy" and now Amazon's "have a smile delivered." And what does all this stuff do for you? First it makes you think that your storage space is too small. Yes, it's nice to have a personal library where you can put your hands on your annotated copy of 20,000 leagues under the sea anytime you want, but... how often do you really want any individual item?
A colleague of mine born around 1935 remarked to me around 1998: "there's really no point in having storage racks of electronic components - whenever we need something, we can have it delivered next-day from DigiKey, and more often than not we need something that wouldn't be in the racks anyway so we can just order the common stuff as needed too." As I approach his age, I find myself adopting that approach more and more - though my collection of stainless steel hardware and tools on the sailboat does continue to grow...
🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 25 2021, @12:00AM (1 child)
Shut up communist! The consumer demands Stuff(tm) and that's perfectly normal and healthy. Good in fact. Look, the economy is on fire!
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Saturday June 26 2021, @12:12PM
The capitalist system can run just fine on virtual goods. Doesn't need all that physical space to store them.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by negrace on Thursday June 24 2021, @12:59PM (3 children)
It is hilarious how many people here are buying this story.
Musk cares a lot about his public image, and he releases at least 1 story per week to pump his image/his companies.
His employees confessed they have plans like 6 months ahead when they are going to release which story.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 24 2021, @01:15PM
No no, somehow you’ve confused the Musk article you read with the Scarlett Johansson article
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Thursday June 24 2021, @04:07PM (1 child)
Yes, many people are taking the story at face value.
However, pumping up and maintaining Musk's image is not superfluous. That image helps him garner investment and license to act from government. He is not the first one to do so. In recent memory Steve Jobs did the same and it worked wonders for him and Apple's share price. Musk might have taken that page from Jobs's book.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by captain normal on Thursday June 24 2021, @05:57PM
Yep...we live in the age of Kardashian ...become famous and get rich.
The Musk/Trump interview appears to have been hacked, but not a DDOS hack...more like A Distributed Denial of Reality.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 24 2021, @01:49PM (1 child)
So this isn't his regular house, just a place where he stays when he goes to Texas? Big deal.
What's next, when he goes over to Germany to check on his battery factory, "Billionaire Elon Musk Lives In Hotel Room"?
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 24 2021, @03:27PM
> "Billionaire Elon Musk Lives In Hotel Room"?
"Billionaire Elon Musk Lives In Hotel Suite"?
ftfy