By Nancy Keates and Becky Peterson

WEST LAKE HILLS, TEXAS -- Elon Musk, poised to become the world's first trillionaire, could choose to live in an elaborate palace, a modern house custom-designed by a famous architect or even his own luxury skyscraper.

Instead, the founder of SpaceX and CEO of electric-vehicle maker Tesla has made his base in several traditional, stucco houses near each other in a nondescript, upscale suburban area about a 15-minute drive from downtown Austin.

Limited-liability companies tied to Musk own at least three large houses with swimming pools in the pricey West Lake Hills area, according to people familiar with the transactions and public records. The houses, each measuring between 6,000 and 9,000 square feet, are all on large lots on dead-end streets with cul-de-sacs; each has cameras pointing at the street.

Texas is a nondisclosure state, meaning home-sale prices generally aren't reported to government entities. But local real-estate agents say between 2022 and 2025, Musk paid around $8 million for one home, around $10 million for another and more than $15 million apiece for two others, one of which was later sold to an LLC linked to Scott Kamra, whose LinkedIn page identifies him as a former employee of Musk's the Boring Company. Kamra didn't respond to a request for comment.

Musk, who has at least 14 children with four women, bought the properties intending to create a compound where the mothers of his children could live with their offspring, the Journal previously reported.

The quiet neighborhood, with few sidewalks, is the kind of place where residents mostly stay inside. Much of the activity on the streets is landscapers and housecleaners coming and going. On a recent weekday around Memorial Day, the street where two of the houses are located was lined with American flags. Only one person was outside, walking a dog. On another street, three Teslas and three Tesla Cybertrucks were parked along the cul-de-sac.

Ashley St. Clair, a social-media influencer who had a son with Musk in 2024, said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal that she frequently visited Musk at one of his homes in West Lake Hills in between 2022 and 2023, and was surprised at how bland the house and the neighborhood seemed. "I mean he's the richest man in the world," she said. "He could live anywhere."

Musk asked her to move to Austin with their child, she said, but then took back the offer. "He never articulated which house it would be," she said. "He just said he would buy me a house and that it would be nice to have me in the neighborhood." Musk didn't respond to requests for comment.

Grimes, the musician who has three children with Musk, also lived with him in Austin for a time, according to court records. Musk attempted to get her to move to the compound, but she refused, the Journal has reported. She didn't respond to a request for comment.

The West Lake Hills area, which includes the city of West Lake Hills and surrounding neighborhoods, has long attracted wealthy residents like Michael Dell, who completed a castle-like compound for his family in 1996, local real-estate agents said. Located in the hills above Lake Austin, the neighborhood offers large lots for privacy, views of downtown Austin and the lake, and access to a highly rated school district. A six-bedroom house across the cul-de-sac from one of the Musk-linked homes is currently for sale asking $16.95 million.

Today, Musk splits his time between Texas and California, where SpaceX, xAI and Tesla all have major offices. He previously lived in California, where he created a similar home pattern between 2012 and 2022: LLCs connected to him spent almost $100 million on a cluster of six houses on two streets in L.A.'s Bel-Air. As in Austin, the quiet neighborhood was in the hills above the city, and three of the houses were on a dead-end street with a cul-de-sac and no sidewalks.

On May 1, 2020, Musk tweeted "Will own no house" -- part of a plan of "selling almost all physical possessions," he said. He sold most of his California homes for around $130 million; by March 2022, he had unloaded all the California houses except one: a Bel-Air home once owned by the actor Gene Wilder.

Meanwhile, even as he said publicly he was becoming more minimalist, Musk had been living in a waterfront estate in Austin owned by a rich friend, the Journal has reported.

Musk's neighbors in West Lake Hills said they hardly ever see him, but they know when he's in town because the number of security cars increases. He has also stayed in penthouse units at the residences of the Proper Hotel in downtown Austin, according to St. Clair, who said she stayed at one with him in 2023.

Musk-linked LLCs have also purchased two small farmhouses on large-acreage properties in Del Valle, about 16 miles east of downtown Austin, near Tesla's Gigafactory. Large buildings are currently under construction at these sites.

Musk has also purchased land farther east near Snailbrook, the town he is creating close to the Boring Company and SpaceX facilities.

Read on for a closer look at the homes connected to him.

Write to Nancy Keates at Nancy.Keates@wsj.com and Becky Peterson at becky.peterson@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 11, 2026 18:01 ET (22:01 GMT)

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