Elon Musk Bought This $50,000 Tiny Home To Use As A Guest House, Now A REIT Will Use It To Build Affordable Housing Communities

Billionaires usually shop for grand mansions, but Elon Musk is not the usual billionaire. In 2022, the Tesla Inc. CEO made headlines by revealing that he owns a tiny home made by Boxabl, a company that specializes in making prefabricated modular housing units.

Musk said he uses the tiny home as a guest house. But the unit, called the Casita, comes with plenty of features, including a full-size bathroom, kitchen, appliances, tall ceilings and big windows. Coming in at 361 square feet, the Casita can be assembled in an hour and starts at around $49,500.

Sound like a good deal?

Many people believe so. According to Boxabl, there is a waitlist of over 170,000 for the Casitas.

But there could be a way to skip the waitlist if you want to invest in a community of tiny homes.

A REIT With A Tiny Home Focus

Real estate investing has experienced a surge in popularity in recent years. Income investors are drawn to the asset class because it gives them the potential to collect a steady stream of rental income.

At the same time, real estate has historically shown resilience in the face of inflation. When inflation occurs, the price of raw materials and labor goes up, so constructing new properties becomes more expensive. And that, in turn, contributes to the appreciation of existing property values.

And you don’t need to buy a house to get a piece of the action. These days, there are online real estate investing platforms that allow retail investors to own a fractional interest in a well-balanced property portfolio and earn passive income.

Elevate Money Inc. is one of these platforms — it was created with the mission of making real estate accessible to all. The platform is open to all investors and has paid 20 consecutive monthly dividends with a 6.5% annualized yield. And now, it’s going to allow investors to capitalize on the boom in tiny homes, too.

Elevate Money has partnered with Boxabl, securing the first right to purchase a minimum of 10% of Boxabl’s monthly production of Casitas. Given the long line of people eagerly waiting their turn to buy these tiny homes, this is a significant opportunity.

The company is putting this advantage to good use. Elevate Money is launching its newest real estate investment trust (REIT) — the Future of Housing Fund — to develop and own affordable housing communities populated by Boxabl Casitas.

"With the upcoming launch of the Future of Housing Fund and our partnership with Boxabl, we will create home communities that are affordable and appealing to all Americans," said Elevate Money’s CEO Harold Hofer in a statement.

The Future Of Housing

The partnership comes at an opportune time.

According to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association, the median mortgage payment for applicants was $2,093 in March, up 1.6% from $2,061 in February.

Simply put, houses are not very affordable in America.

“The affordability index hit a new survey high last month, with both the typical purchase application amount and monthly payment rising on a monthly and annual basis,” Mortgage Bankers Association Associate Vice President Edward Seiler said in April.

The blunt reality is that the Federal Reserve has implemented significant interest rate hikes to tame rampant inflation. And mortgage rates have gone up as well, meaning homebuyers have to grapple with larger mortgage payments.

When you buy a home, you have to factor in more than just the mortgage payment. Homeowners are also on the hook for property taxes, insurance, maintenance and repairs.

Prefabricated homes like the Casita, on the other hand, can be considerably cheaper to own and maintain, making them an attractive option. Given this backdrop, the partnership between Elevate Money and Boxabl could create a new economy for affordable housing.

At the same time, this transformative collaboration has the potential to open up exciting opportunities for investors. If you are looking to diversify your portfolio and tap into this burgeoning market, you might want to do a bit more research on the Future of Housing Fund before its expected launch this summer.