Elon Musk has spent $100 million on 7 lavish houses, including one with a ballroom and flower-arranging room

• Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has spent roughly $100 million on buying up California mansions over the last seven years, according to the Wall Street Journal.
  
• One of the properties found by the newspaper is a 100-year old mansion complete with ballroom and flower-arranging room.
• Another is a ranch house formerly owned by actor Gene Wilder.
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The Wall Street Journal reports that Tesla CEO and billionaire Elon Musk and companies affiliated with him have spent a rough total of $100 million on six houses since 2012.

Six of the houses are situated a stone's throw from each other in Bel-Air, California. Musk also owns a large estate near Tesla's headquarters in Northern California.

According to the Journal's analysis, the Bel-Air properties consist of:

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• A colonial mansion currently worth $22.3 million that comes with a lighted tennis court, five garages, and a pool.
• A ranch house formerly owned by actor Gene Wilder worth $7.8 million.
• A six-bedroom house with eight bathrooms worth $20 million.
• A four bedroom property worth $4.9 million. Neighbors reported seeing pink lights on in the house on Valentine's day, according to the Journal.
• A six bedroom house reportedly made up of "geometric shapes" and worth $27.3 million.
• A colonial house bought in January 2019, now worth $4.2 million.

The estate in Northern California houses a 100-year-old mansion worth $27.2 million. Before Musk bought it it had been in the same family for 150 years. It comes complete with ball-room, flower-arranging room, a staff wing, and a pavilion bedecked in 18th-century Chinese wallpaper.

Aerial shots in the Journal show the house nestled among the trees, with manicured gardens and a large front driveway.

It is not clear which of the various properties, if any, is Musk's primary residence.

Elon Musk's assets and worth have recently been the subject of scrutiny in court.

Musk is currently fighting a defamation case in the US against British cave diver Vernon Unsworth, who Musk dubbed "pedo guy" after Unsworth criticised his idea to send a mini submarine to rescue a Thai boys' soccer team trapped in a flooded cave system.

While testifying this week, Musk estimated his net worth to be $20 billion. "People think I have a lot of cash. I actually don't," he told the court, saying most of his wealth was tied up in shares in his various companies.

You can read the Wall Street Journal's rundown of Musk's properties here.