These Celebs' Humble Homes Hide Just How Rich They Really Are

When you're a celebrity (not speaking from experience here), you do things a little differently from other folks. Whether it's attending the glitziest parties or sharing glamorous updates to millions of followers, a celebrity lifestyle affords you a few things that we mere mortals can only dream of. This extends to the kind of real estate the rich and famous can own. While the average price of a home in the U.S. was $295,300 in June 2020, in some celeb-populated areas like Hollywood Hills, that average house price sits a little higher — at a whopping $1.83 million for the same month and year, according to Zillow.

Yet sometimes celebrities buck the trend. Not every famous person loves to flaunt their wealth with houses of astronomical price or square footage. In fact, some prefer to find a place to call home that falls far below the average house size, which was 2,301 square feet in 2019, according to Statista. While there are some impressively expensive celebrity homes in the U.S., there are just as many modest ones. But which celebs like to keep things simple? Let's take a look at some of the smallest celebrity homes around.

When Maggie Rogers released "Alaska" in 2016 with the backing of Pharrell Williams, she burst to stardom at a rate fast enough to make your head spin. Luckily, Rogers keeps things grounded, as seen with her 1,034-square-foot starter home in Echo Park, Los Angeles. The humble house is a far cry from the mansions of other music stars, like Williams' own mega-mansion. According to Dirt, Rogers purchased the home in 2020, but it isn't quite what you'd expect from a Grammy-nominated artist whose album went to number two on the Billboard 200. It has an unassuming black façade and a modest patio space, giving it a homely effect that continues inside.

The home's interiors follow a "bohemian modern" aesthetic, with light furniture pairing with bright walls and wooden ceilings. The kitchen is snug but efficient, with enough space to house a generous center island amongst the top-of-the-line appliances and white cabinets with gold pulls. In the master bath (one of three in the property, as well as three bedrooms), Rogers' artistic sensibilities shine through. The master bath has a freestanding bathtub surrounded by oil paintings and a sprawling fiddle-leaf fig. There is also a shaded hang-out space outside that sits adjacent to a patio, which gives the musician an ideal space to work on new tracks while watching L.A. sunsets.

Once upon a time in Hollywood, you could barely blink without someone mentioning Jennifer Lawrence. The renowned actor has lost none of her star power, but when she first reached stardom, she bucked expectation by staying put in her previously-purchased condo in Santa Monica, according to Variety.

The beach-adjacent property was bought for $879,000 in 2006, and contains just two bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms. And at 1,413 square feet, it is far from enormous. What it is, though, is designed to appear far roomier than its actual size. The living room has an open floor plan, which means that Lawrence had plenty of space to spread out. Open arches lead to the dining space and kitchen area, further opening up the property. Lawrence eventually moved on to bigger things property-wise and sold her condo in 2016 for $1.15 million. This might be a drop in the ocean of her $160 million net worth (via Celebrity Net Worth), but it's still a profit! But even with Lawrence's new property, it's clear that she doesn't veer towards homes with eye-watering square footage. According to Teen Vogue, her Tribeca condo was only marginally larger than her Santa Monica property, by Hollywood standards, at 3,184 square feet.

So. Let's talk about Elon Musk. It's no secret that this guy is pretty wealthy. In fact, as of November 2021, he's the richest person in the world. According to Forbes, he currently has a net worth of $305 billion. Excuse us while we eat crackers for lunch for the fourth day running.

What's a little less well-known, however, is where he chooses to live. Musk prefers to spend his downtime in a prefab tiny house worth under $50,000, which he rents from his company SpaceX, according to Musk's Twitter. The home, which is located near SpaceX's operations site in Boca Chica, Texas, is a tiny house built by Las Vegas-based company Boxabl (via Business Insider). At just 375 square feet in size, this has to be the most extreme net-worth-to-house-size ratio out there.

We can understand why Musk would choose to live in this particular tiny home, though. The house, which is dubbed the "Casita," is designed with both space and aesthetics in mind. The home supplies a generously-sized kitchen, living space, and a sleeping area in its open-plan design, and has a cute little separate bathroom. It's for sure a bit of a weird choice by Musk, but we mean, he's never exactly been predictable, right?

Elliot Page has been a fixture in Hollywood for years now, so you might expect him to be living it up in a sprawling mansion. After all, he has an impressive net worth of $12 million, per Celebrity Net Worth. However, his actual residence is positively teeny from a celebrity perspective — although it does have a pretty rad celebrity pedigree. Page's mid-century bungalow, set in the Hollywood Hills, was bought for $1.7 million from none other than Venus Williams. Yet despite the very Hollywood price tag, the property only contains 1,500 square feet of space, with three bedrooms and two bathrooms.

Size is no obstacle to the utter luxury of this space, though. The house is all retro glamour with an open floor plan containing several different seating sections and mid-century modern furniture. The living room is punctuated by a towering fireplace that has brick detail leading up to the sloping ceiling. The master bedroom is a vision in neutral tones and adjoins to an outdoor patio. And despite the modest living space, there's plenty of room for a pool, along with a deck running alongside it.

While some celebrities prefer to live in a home that is a million square feet in space, other stars actively seek smaller homes to dwell in. And to be honest, we don't blame them. Once you've seen one home theater and billiards room, you've seen them all. This was the case for "Mad Men" alumnus Vincent Kartheiser, whose snug Hollywood home clocked in at just 54 square meters of space, according to House & Home. That is about 581 square feet.

Despite the size of the house, it's one of the most ingeniously and tastefully-designed spaces we've ever seen, helped in part by the hard work of architect and designer Funn Roberts. Check out that black marble shower located right in the middle of the main room, creating, in essence, a wet room in the center of the house. Or, take a look at the bed ... that's it, a little higher ... keep looking up ... that's right, it's on the ceiling. Kartheiser and Roberts designed the bed to be lowered at night via a weighted pulley system, and he can fold down the redwood headboard during the day to create a desk. Pretty neat, right? Having bought the house in 2003 for $547,000, Kartheiser listed the home in 2014, for $800,000, according to Variety.

Running back and NFL legend Adrian Peterson has had a million dollar salary since going pro in 2007, according to Spotrac. So it's a bit of a headscratcher as to why he held on to his five-bed, four-bath home in Minnesota, which he bought in 2007 for just $665,000 (via TMZ). At 4,167 square feet (per Realtor), it's a comparatively modest-sized home for a sports star, and from the outside, it'd be difficult to tell that it was home to a football icon. The house looks pretty much like any other suburban property, with a generously-sized garage, a well-kept front lawn, and a boxy window above the front door separated by a transom.

While the interior is just as classic as the exterior, one distinctive room hints that a football star lives there. The former Minnesota Vikings player kitted out his game room in the team's recognizable colors, with the deep purple of the walls helping to highlight the huge pool table in the middle of it. Amazingly, Peterson held on to the home for a decade before selling it in 2017.

(Insert joke about Elijah Wood having a hobbit-sized house here.) Good, now that we've got that one out of the way! Elijah Wood has always been known to make interesting choices, and that is as true for his property portfolio as it is for his acting career. While most actors shack up in Hollywood in stratospherically-expensive homes, Wood instead preferred to create a base in Austin, Texas, spending just over a million dollars on a three-story house back in 2012, per Austonia. But that purchase did not make much of a dent in his net worth of $18 million (per The Richest).

The home, which dates back 130 years, contains four bedrooms and 4.5 bathrooms, and an impressive two living rooms. The house clocks in at over 3,285 square feet of space. Out front, the house is elegantly built and includes an enclosed porch space. Inside, the home has touches of classical charm, like clawfoot bathtubs and marble countertops. There's also a guesthouse on the property (presumably useful for when Wood's showbiz buds come to stay), and you can see imposing views of the Austin skyline from the top story. Wood held on to the house for eight years before selling for $1.85 million in 2020.