California is a lot less Musky.
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that billionaire Tesla founder Elon Musk has off-loaded all of his properties in the Golden State less than two years after he not-so-cryptically announced on Twitter that he would cease being a homeowner.
The SpaceX CEO tweeted “I am selling almost all physical possessions. Will own no house” back on May 1, 2020, and a firesale of the seven homes he and limited liability companies tied to him owned in California — many in the neighborhood of Bel Air — ensued.
In 2019, the Journal reported Musk owned six homes clustered in Bel Air near the Hotel Bel-Air along with a 100-year-old estate in Hillsborough, which is in northern California. All of those homes were purchased between December 2012 and January 2019 for $102 million combined.
But between June 2020 and November 2021, Musk sold off all seven homes, taking in about $128 million — which could add up to an almost $25 million profit, according to the report.
So what’s life like now that a billionaire who has hosted Saturday Night Live, been named Time Magazine’s 2021 Person of the Year and been labeled an eccentric genius has moved on?
According to neighbors of the Hillsborough mansion who spoke to the newspaper, it’s become a lot more tranquil.
Neighbors say that since the property was purchased by Kirill Evstratov, the 37-year-old founder and CEO of financial tech company Unlimint, things have been almost frighteningly hushed, with little traffic going to and from the house, a complete U-turn from the frequent boisterous gathering and the procession of construction vehicles — and Teslas — that came and went when Musk owned the house.
Other buyers of Musk’s homes include Chinese billionaire and the founder of the mobile gaming company NetEase William Ding; Jordan Walker-Pearlman, the nephew of the late actor Gene Wilder who bought back his uncle’s home from Musk; and Los Angeles developer Ardie Tavangarian, who purchased four of Musk’s Bel Air homes for $62 million in December of 2020, according to the report.
Musk is now living in a home in Boca Chica, Texas that he rents from SpaceX, which has its rocket-launch facility located nearby, according to the newspaper.
[Wall Street Journal] — Vince DiMiceli