Did Elon Musk Offhandedly Drive Up Home Prices in Austin? We’d Like to Think So

Billionaire Elon Musk has influenced Tesla’s stock prices in the past. But could the Tesla CEO’s opinions impact home prices in a city now associated with him and his brand?

In a podcast interview last month, Musk told Joe Rogan that Austin had the potential to be the “biggest boomtown that America has seen in 50 years.”

Boom. This week, it was reported that Austin proper now has the highest median home price on record, according to the Austin Board of Realtors Central Texas Housing Report (subscription needed).

OK. To be clear, the housing market might have been timed just right for Musk’s proclamation. Like other Texas markets, the Austin area’s higher prices reflect the gap between housing supply and demand.

Bad news for buyers. But for sellers, it’s a good thing.

Austin’s February median home price within the city limits hit $491,000. It was a 24.3 percent leap from February 2020. The five-county Travis County region median home price hit an all-time high of $395K.

Musk is building a $1.1 billion manufacturing plant in Austin, joining Oracle, which has relocated its corporate headquarters. Apple, Amazon, Samsung, Facebook, and Google also have expanded into the Austin area.

“Austin continues to draw out-of-town buyers with big budgets who are competing in the housing market against local Austinites,” said Mary Anne McMahon, broker/owner of RE/MAX Posh Properties in Austin told the Austin American-Statesman.

One of those out-of-town buyers could be Musk. He confirmed rumors in December that he was moving from Los Angeles to Texas, but it’s not known where he’ll live. We helped out with three suggestions.

In December, Ernie Carswell, superstar agent from Beverly Hills, Calif.-based Ernie Carswell & Associates, told me that Musk-to-Texas is a good fit.

“I do think he’s the perfect incoming Texan — free with his thoughts, adventurous, intelligent, visionary, and loves life and ‘the next thing,’ ” said Carwell, who began his real estate career in Highland Park in the 1980s.