Musk says he lives in a house of 50 thousand dollars, of Austin's mansion or speaks -

Austin, Texas 3 Jan. (Dow Jones) - When Time magazine named Elon Musk "Person of the Year" last week, he painted a spartan picture of his housing conditions. “The richest man in the world doesn't own a house,” the article began.

The magazine was repeating what has become a central element of Musk's public persona. Since last year, when the billionaire CEO of Tesla and SpaceX announced that he was "selling almost all physical possessions" in an effort to simplify his life, Musk has repeatedly portrayed himself as a man of modest tastes.

“My primary home is literally a $50K house in Boca Chica/Starbase that I rent from SpaceX,” he tweeted this June, referring to a Texas town near the Mexican border, near the SpaceX launch facility. SpaceX rockets. “However, it is quite impressive.”

What Musk hasn't said, and what few people know, is that for about a year he's also been living on a waterfront estate in Austin -- owned by a wealthy friend nicknamed "Kenny," people familiar say to the matter--a house so extravagant that it was the most expensive listing in the Texas capital when it sold just a few years ago.

Musk has also hired a number of realtors to show him Austin-area mansions for purchase, and has toured some homes in person, some of the people say.

The Austin home where Musk is staying is owned by Ken Howery, a billionaire who has known Musk for decades. Musk's stay is so secret that some friends of Howery said they were unaware of the deal.

Howery co-founded PayPal Holdings, where Musk was an executive early in his career, and later, along with famed investor Peter Thiel, co-founded Founders Fund, the venture capital fund that has backed several of Musk's companies .

The three men are considered part of what has been popularly called the “PayPal Mafia,” a group of former company executives who went on to succeed in business.

In 2017, Musk tweeted that he had stopped by a party attended by actors Leonardo DiCaprio and Orlando Bloom to say hello to Howery.

Howery was the US ambassador to Sweden during the second half of the Trump administration. Since he ended his term, Howery has been traveling the world, including chasing tornadoes and other extreme weather events as a hobby, people who know him say.

That left his home available to Musk, who said last year that he had moved to Texas to coincide with the move of Tesla's headquarters to outside Austin in late 2021.

The property includes nearly 8,000 square feet of interior space on a peninsula jutting into the Colorado River at the foot of Mount Bonnell in an upscale Austin neighborhood, property records show. It features an oceanfront pool, Jacuzzi, and private jetty, and is protected by multiple sets of gates and a guardhouse as part of a development called "Watersedge."

The mansion sold for more than 12 million dollars in 2018; real estate agents say it would sell for multiples of that now, a reflection of the city's booming housing market. It could not be determined whether Musk paid Howery for use of the residence. Musk is valued at about $240 billion. Neither man responded to requests for comment.

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Musk's extended stay at the Austin mansion, as well as his continued search for a nearby showcase property, complicate the narrative he has cultivated. Several years ago he claimed that he temporarily slept with a white pillow without a cover on the floor under his desk at the Tesla factory in the San Francisco area.

Last year he pledged on Twitter to “own no houses”, and he has delivered by selling a large portfolio of homes.

“I live in a $50,000 house,” he wrote on Twitter in July. Public records show that he is registered to vote in Cameron County, Texas, near Boca Chica beach, in a house built in 1971 that occupies one-fifth of an acre. The house is owned by Space Exploration Technologies, according to records.

In recent months, Musk and his representatives have hired a series of Austin-based real estate agents to search for a trophy property in the area, say people familiar with the matter. His personal financial advisers have sent a number of requirements to the agents, including a desire for a large tract of land that is currently not available in properties on the market, the people say.

Musk has visited several homes in person, two of the people say. Among the homes he has expressed interest in, those people say, is a custom-built mansion owned by well-known jewelry designer Kendra Scott.

Scott, who through a spokeswoman declined to comment, was open to an agreement, but Musk failed to show up for several appointments to visit the home, one of the people said.

Privacy is one of Musk's top concerns, say people briefed on the search.

The home search is so tightly guarded, people say, that several high-end Austin home sellers say they hope it remains a mystery even after he buys a property. When the most expensive listed home in Austin sold for around $39 million earlier this year to a California limited liability corporation with connections to Musk, word spread in the neighborhood that Musk was the secret buyer.

It wasn't, says Jonny Jones, a businessman who previously owned the home and was forced to deny the rumor.

Michele Turnquist, a real estate agent who represented Jones in the sale, said she continues to receive misplaced congratulations.

“Five people told me, 'You know, Elon bought your ad,'” Turnquist says. "I tell them if Elon bought my ad, I wouldn't know it."