June 11, 2026

SpaceX went public, and the ripple hit Brownsville first

SpaceX's IPO (ticker SPCX) was the largest in history: 555,555,555 shares at $135.00, raising $75.0 billion (Saudi Aramco's 2019 record was $29.4 billion), valuing the company at about $1.77 trillion at the offer price. (The "$2 trillion" figures widely quoted came from post-open trading, not the offering itself.) The local numbers behind the headline: more than 4,000 people already work at Starbase, roughly 70% hired from the Valley, and the company has said it plans to roughly double that toward 8,000 during 2026. Brownsville's average home price has climbed to $196,920, up nearly 75% since 2018. CBS's on-the-ground reporting found what locals already know: real economic lift and launch-day tourism on one side, real worry about housing costs and the environment on the other. Both halves are true; that's the story of this coast right now.

If the job or the growth is pulling you here, our relocation guide starts with the honest version of the housing market.

Correction (Sept. 5): an earlier version of this item was dated June 6 and said the IPO "instantly valu[ed] the company around $2 trillion." The offering priced June 11 (the date on SpaceX's final prospectus), and the ~$2 trillion number came from post-open trading; the valuation at the offer price was about $1.77 trillion. We've replaced both with the figures from SpaceX's own prospectus, linked below.

Sources: SpaceX IPO prospectus (Form 424B4, June 12) · CBS News (June 12)

Know before the next launch: get free Launch Alerts by email, or follow us on X, Facebook and WhatsApp.