Getting your
Trinity Audioplayer ready...There’s been lots of chatter about just how much money is $1 trillion, now that Elon Musk, the world’s wealthiest person, has a net worth that makes him Earth’s first “trillionaire” – at least on paper.
Numerous folks have tried to put this incomprehensible bounty into digestible, relatable terms. Please allow my trusty spreadsheet to do some “Musk math” to put that mountain range’s worth of dollars into a language many of us speak: California homes, using some Zillow data.
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Let’s imagine that Musk had a huge interest in real estate. How far would a $1 trillion homebuying budget go for the Tesla/Space X founder?
Hypothetically, that sum buys you 1.3 million California residences in cash at the $776,000 median value as of April.
Nationally, $1 trillion buys 2.7 million homes at the U.S. median price of $368,000. Only Hawaii gets a Musk-sized buyer fewer homes than California: Just 1.2 million purchases at the Aloha State’s $830,000 median.
After California comes Massachusetts, 1.5 million homes at $662,000, Washington state, 1.7 million at $604,000, and the District of Columbia, 1.7 million at $580,000.
Where in America does $1 trillion buy the most homes? That’s where this enormous bounty runs into a touch of real estate reality.
That astonishing budget would theoretically buy you 5.7 million homes in West Virginia with its $175,000 median price. But the state has only roughly 800,000 ownership options.
The same puzzle is found in Mississippi, where $1 trillion gets 5.1 million homes at its $194,000 median – but there are only 1.2 million residences. In Louisiana, it’s 4.7 million at its $215,000 median, but the state has only 2 million residences. And Oklahoma’s 4.5 million at $222,000 outstretches its 1.5 million residences.
See a theme here? All told, $1 trillion would buy every home in 34 states. Yup, an astounding two-thirds of America.
Value proposition
Ponder this mind-boggling Musk math by another method, looking at Zillow’s 2025 estimates of the total value of all residences in a state.
If you spent $1 trillion in California, you’d buy only 9% of the $10.8 trillion value of all residences. That’s the smallest slice among the states. Nationally, $1 trillion gets you 2% of the $55 trillion total value of U.S. homes.
After California, $1 trillion buys the least in New York, 23% of $4.3 trillion, Florida, 27% of $3.7 trillion, Texas, 30% of $3.3 trillion, New Jersey, 50% of $2 trillion, and Massachusetts, 54% of $1.9 trillion.
How much is $1 trillion? That’s more than the total values of all homes in all but 17 states.
California dreamin’
Next, contemplate this ginormous nest egg with 12 zeros as a homebuying spree within the 100 metropolitan areas with the largest combined value of residences.
This Musk math shows a $1 trillion budget is enough to buy every home in all but nine of the metros. Of course, three of those nine are from the Golden State.
In Los Angeles and Orange counties, $1 trillion buys only 26% of the $3.9 trillion valuation – the No. 2 most valuable market in the U.S. And “only” is relative.
In San Francisco, it’s 54% of a $1.85 trillion value, the No. 3 market. Then in San Diego, it’s 97% of $1.03 trillion, the No. 9 market.
We’ll note that San Jose is almost a budget-buster, as its $995 billion total value – No. 10 in the nation – would leave a trillionaire buyer with a mere $5 billion in change.
In six other Golden State metros among the top 100, $1 trillion would easily buy every residence:
– Inland Empire: All homes are worth $849 billion (No. 15), so $151 billion is left.
– Sacramento: $498 billion value (No. 19), so $502 billion left.
– Ventura County: $244 billion (No. 43), so $756 billion left.
– Stockton: $129 billion (No. 61), with $871 billion left.
– Fresno: $122 billion (No. 67), with $878 billion left.
– Bakersfield: $95 billion (No. 79), with $905 billion left.
Jonathan Lansner is the business columnist for the Southern California News Group. He can be reached at jlansner@scng.com