Elon Musk denies report that he's been staying in a $12 million lavish waterfront Austin estate owned by a 'PayPal Mafia' member
- The Wall Street Journal reported Musk has been staying at an Austin, Texas, mansion and toured homes.
- The home's owner, Ken Howery, is a PayPal cofounder, billionaire, and former ambassador to Sweden.
Elon Musk said last year that he'd moved to Texas, but he has yet to disclose where in the Lone Star State he has bought a home.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Musk could be on the hunt for a house and has been staying at his friend's $12 million mansion in Austin, Texas.
Sources told the paper that Musk has been staying at the home of Ken Howery, a billionaire PayPal cofounder — a member of the "PayPal Mafia" — and the former US ambassador to Sweden in the Trump administration.
The pair have been friends for decades, according to The Journal, and Musk has been staying at Howery's home for about a year while Howery travels the world and participates in extreme-weather hobbies, like chasing tornadoes, sources told The Journal.
Musk denied The Journal's report. He told Insider in an email,"the WSJ article is false. I don't live there and am not looking to buy a house anywhere."
After The Journal published its report, Howery told the paper that "Elon does not live at my home, he lives in South Texas. He stayed at the house as my guest occasionally when traveling to Austin."
Howery's property spans 8,000 square feet in an exclusive Austin district near Mount Bonnell, a popular hiking destination for tourists and locals with sweeping views of the city and Hill Country. It has a pool, a Jacuzzi, a private boat slip, and is gated, according to the report. It sold for $12 million in 2018.
Sources told The Journal that Musk and his team have employed multiple real-estate agents to find him a home.
Musk expressed interest in the home of the famed Texas jewelry designer Kendra Scott, who was open to a deal, according to the report. But nothing materialized after Musk missed appointments to view the home.
Musk announced in June 2020 that he was "selling almost all physical possessions" and "will own no house" including his properties in California. Musk was named Time magazine's Person of the Year last week, a feature that included the line: "the richest man in the world does not own a house."
He said late last year that he was moving the headquarters of his companies — including Tesla — to Texas, citing in part his disagreement with California's COVID-19 policies. Musk also confirmed that he himself was moving to Texas.
He tweeted in June that he lives in a $50,000 home near his company SpaceX's site in Boca Chica, Texas. Public records show he's registered to vote at a home built in 1971 that SpaceX owns, according to The Journal.
Musk's companies — Tesla, SpaceX, and his Boring Company — have grown their Texas presence significantly in recent months as the tech sector — which has a long history in Austin — booms in the capital city.
Texas Monthly reported in August that Tesla — through its Tesla Energy Ventures subsidiary — applied with the Public Utility Commission to sell electricity to Texans, a move that could let those whose homes are outfitted with solar panels to share power with the state's deregulated electrical grid.