One Elon Musk Tweet Supercharged a Texas Region’s Transformation
Fans and investors are flocking to the area near the billionaire’s SpaceX launch site, bringing both opportunity and angst for locals.
Evan Wood routinely gets text messages from strangers asking if he wants to sell his South Padre Island condo, which boasts a direct view of Elon Musk’s Texas spaceport six miles to the south.
“There's no way I would even consider it,” said Wood, a software engineer and space enthusiast based outside of Austin, who bought the condo during the pandemic after visiting with his family. To him, it’s “mind-blowing” to see what Musk’s SpaceX is doing at its launch site near the Gulf of Mexico.
Over in Brownsville, the first semblance of civilization you hit when exiting the barren 20-mile road from SpaceX’s Starbase, similar tales are common. Bruno Zavaleta, a local real estate agent, had one client drive 16 hours from Atlanta and snap up two properties in cash the day he arrived. That buyer is now under contract for two more homes that are being built in a development called Palo Alto Groves, which touts its location as “home of Elon Musk’s SpaceX Control Center.”