Elon Musk's Tiny Prefab Home

[NJCher]

Elon Musk reportedly lives in a $50,000 prefab tiny home that already has a 100,000-unit wait list — see inside a unit


This photo appears to show Boxabl delivering a Casita to SpaceX

Mostly pics at the link.
https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-tiny-home-prefab-boxabl-casita-50000-person-waitlist-2021-8

[Hugh_Lebowski]

1. Seriously?

If so, I guess there's 1 thing I think the man is doing right ...

But ... I find it hard to believe that's his only home. Maybe he has them at his facilities he travels to so he can be very close by and not have to stay in hotels or spend time in traffic?

[lagomorph777]

12. Yeah, I understand he's sold/selling off off the palaces and just doing this.

Dude barely has time for a shower anyhow; who needs a fancy house that you're rarely in?

[Hugh_Lebowski]

22. Interesting. The article in the OP actually hedges VERY hard on the idea that it's even his

house, and certainly doesn't say he has no other homes ... which is not to say you're wrong, I don't know either way, but this article is sketchy and reads more like a paid advertisement for Boxable.

[lagomorph777]

26. Yeah, but Musk himself says his house is $50K - the exact price of that Casita.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

32. Sounds logical! (nt)

[Srkdqltr]

2. Where can these be put? Zoning laws and all? What property ?

[PoliticAverse]

7. "Zoning laws" - you said the magic words. A prime purpose of many zoning laws...

is to keep poor people out.

[CentralMass]

21. Exactly

[Hugh_Lebowski]

24. Good question. I would guess at least some mobile home parks would be cool with them

Esp. considering all these really are is mobile homes in a great many regards. Only real advancement is the foldable nature for shipping purposes.

But 'owning a tiny home' sounds trendy and way cooler than 'small-ass mobile home in a trailer park'

[lagomorph777]

27. What zoning? Musk don't need no steenkeen zoning! He's founding the town of "Starbase".

[Hekate]

33. Los Angeles, among other cities, is dealing with a housing shortage that has families in garages...

A homeowner can get supplemental income by converting a garage to an apartment, and most are unpermitted. You can immediately rent to a single person or a couple, but in some poorer neighborhoods you’ll find an entire family squeezed into an unregulated, unsafe space.

Should municipalities make it easier for homeowners to get permission to add on a “Granny unit”? In my former county (Santa Barbara), it was like pulling teeth without anesthesia. Should upper end homes have an adorable Casita on the lot, available for an office?

This has been much in the news for years — or was until the pandemic drove everything else but actual homelessness away from our attention.

35+ years ago, on evening walks around our now-former neighborhood outside Santa Barbara, we saw a large motor-home at the curb of one house with a heavy-duty cord snaking into the house. It was a permanent fixture there. Many of the garages in our middle class neighborhood had curtains on the windows. I knew more than one widow or divorcee who was holding on to her home by virtue of blocking off part of it to create a rentable apartment. (Ultimately I also knew more than one single older woman who found a place to park a single-wide on land owned by friends or family.) When we were in talking with a mortgage lender before buying our house we were asked bluntly if we were going to rent out one of the 4 bedrooms to keep up with the costs — he knew.

There’s a lot of malarkey peddled in planning and zoning commissions about population density in neighborhoods with single-family homes, and how all parked cars belong in driveways. They need to get over themselves and look at reality. We were living in a middle class neighborhood of modest tract houses, but just count the garages with curtains on the windows. There were already more people in need of a roof over their heads 35 years ago than there were affordable units of housing. As neighbors, we looked the other way as the density went up, as long as it was attached, so to speak, to a neighbor’s house, and kept tidy.

The situation has not improved. I hear the cops are still forcing occupied cars and motor-homes to keep moving throughout the night. There’s still no place they can all just go to park without harassment. There’s still no affordable units.

Permitting prefab units on homeowners’ property, as was being argued about in the gigantic megalopolis to our south, would be a godsend and a good start.

[NQAS]

34. That's the problem

I have some acreage that one of my children would like to build a small house on. Even before we get to any size-related issues, I would have to subdivide my property so that the size of the property meets the town zoning requirement. In the process my property taxes would be recalculated for the years it was in agricultural use, making this a pretty expensive proposition. So, even if the house is small - not necessarily prefab, just a small house built on site - it's already costing probably tens of thousands of dollars just to allow us to get the point of applying for permission. Add in surveying and legal costs. We did a back of the envelope thing on this idea, and we were were over $100,000 before we decided to shelve this idea for the moment.

What a shock. Nothing's easy.

[Srkdqltr]

36. I think they are cute and a good idea in a way.

But there has to be property to put them on.
Who takes care of the property?
A lot of people who are homeless are not capable of taking care of themselves or don't want to live indoors.
No it isn't easy.

[Wounded Bear]

3. Interesting...nt

Last edited Mon Aug 9, 2021, 03:50 PM - Edit history (1)

[TheBlackAdder]

28. There are sexier European and modern small prefabs out there. Those look like warehouse offices.

[tinrobot]

4. So, he lives in a mobile home.

Because that is exactly what it is.

[Hortensis]

25. No, most mobile homes are a lot more spacious and inexpensive,

even the small ones. They even have room for a partner, should someone, unlike Musk, happen to have one.

Or a child. Musk has 6, who obviously live elsewhere with parents who provide them with homes.

[FSogol]

5. The funny thing about tiny houses is the people talking about it never

mention the sanitary connection to the city sewer or septic field. Or the electrical connection or water connection? Or the need to have the water below grade to prevent freezing. Nope, just a magical, put-it-anywhere tiny home!

[LaMouffette]

9. I'm a fan of tiny houses, but you're right. A lot goes unmentioned, including the fact

that many of the young adults opting to go "tiny" so that they won't have a mortgage are also opting out of one of the main ways that middle-income Americans build wealth: by investing in a home that will appreciate in value.

Hopefully, they are well aware of this and are socking money away in savings accounts, IRAs, and other investments.

[lagomorph777]

13. Yup - that stuff (and land) pretty much doubles the cost.

But that still adds up pretty cheap compared to the average single-family home.

[TheBlackAdder]

29. Yep, the lot, site prep and tie-in make $50K seem cheap. There are better small unit designs.

[Bristlecone]

6. He, his wife/partner, and his baby live in that prefab?

No way. Marketing campaign

[Happy Hoosier]

8. People can live in shoeboxes if they like.

Not for me, thanks.

[FSogol]

10. Obligatory tiny home video

https://vimeo.com/151916585

[Happy Hoosier]

18. LOL!!! NT

[NJCher]

30. love it

[Hekate]

35. Multitasking, I see

[marble falls]

11. This is actually a pretty cool product. They have an Army contract to provide housing units ...

... if I had some money to seriously invest, I put in this company.

[lagomorph777]

14. I think lots of them will be mother-in-law houses in backyards.

[marble falls]

15. It's got a lot of potential, they have double units joined one corner that has my wife all jazzed up

[lagomorph777]

16. We're pretty intrigued too. The construction materials are mold-resistant,

...a fairly big deal in our thinking these days.

[marble falls]

17. I worked for a company, Port-O-Stall, that made animal containment systems: barn, stables ...

... using the same system of laminated foam and steel, and Boxabl adds a cement panel to that, and where we pressed sheets together, they use a vacuum.

Seriously smart, strong, sustainable, fire-resistent, crazy mad R values, easily modified and expanded.

Plus, Boxibl is planning on a 40x40', 20x60' and a 20x80' std model.

This company is a good investment.

[lagomorph777]

19. Looks like it.

[Vinca]

20. Guess his tiny home isn't made for snow country unless he can throw in a tiny

sloped roof. I like the idea of little, pre-fab, high quality houses, but I think I'd need several of these not to feel claustrophobic.

[jeffreyi]

23. Why is this different from a boat or an RV?

Jumping over dollars to save dimes?

[Hortensis]

31. I'm not an admirer of the "tiny" home fad. It's fun for those

who are attracted to the idea and can afford to have fun and walk away if necessary.

Notably, this is a very tiny niche market to go with the tiny size. Once the novelty's given way and over time, most buyers will want to move on and many will lose most of the money they sank into these overly expensive boxes. If they can sell at all. Many of these are erected in marginal locations. What will happen to the appeal of a used 375 sq ft unit out where zoning didn't prohibit it once media coverage is more about buyers' remorse than embracing a new lifestyle?

It's very telling that most tiny home buyers wouldn't touch a far more comfortable (larger!) and affordable traditional mobile home. They're paying through the nose for what is written up as far better style, not better function.

Tiny can be great for affordable temporary -- usually where people are trying to break into a desirable jobs market, like teeny-tiny rental units in NYC. But for permanent they solve no problems and potentially create new ones. This has been studied. Anything can be overdone, and too small can lead to mental health and socialization problems.

Disclosure: This comes from someone who greatly admires the traditional "tacky" MHs because they enable many millions to live very comfortably for comparatively very little, and often in much nicer areas than where low-end apartments and regular homes are available. They can also be rolled onto a new site with minimal environmental disruption.