If you consider yourself a non-conformist, or one who shuns traditional ways of doing things, then here is a perfect lineup of nontraditional homes that should fit your spirit perfectly. Take your pick from a church, an old firehouse, an earthship home, a geodesic home, a floating home, and even a decommissioned missile site. Plus, some of these homes are for sale!

10 Unique, One-of-a-Kind Places to Call Home:

1. Old Firehouse – 117 Broad St, San Francisco, CA 94112 (above)
Status: For Sale — $975,000

San Francisco’s Firehouse 33 was in the business of fighting fires from 1896 to 1974. Up until 1921, it had two horses, a steamer, a Dalmatian and a rotating crew of firefighters. When bigger fire engines were built in the 1970s, Firehouse 33’s doors could not accommodate the wider girth and so, the original Firehouse 33 became obsolete and a new Firehouse 33 was built around the corner. An entrepreneurial couple bought this firehouse and turned it into a home/business — the “San Francisco Fire Engine Tours & Adventures” business. It has two beds, two baths and 4,000 sq ft of space, plus interesting amenities such as the original redwood lockers the firemen used, lots of closet space, a garage that can fit six cars (and a firetruck, if you had one) and of course, a fire pole!
> See more photos of the firehouse
> See San Francisco homes for sale
> See San Francisco home values

2. Old Church — 601 Dolores St, San Francisco, CA 94110 (above)
Status: For Sale – $7,490,000

Yes, here we are in San Francisco again (surprised?) where we find a fabulously restored Gothic Revival home that was formerly a church. At 17,000 sq ft, it is said to be one of the largest single family homes in San Francisco. The living room features a soaring, coffered, hand-painted ceiling with seven enormous chandeliers, stained glass windows (naturally) and arched windows looking out to Dolores Park. Climb to the tower meditation room and deck for a 360-degree view of the city.
> See more photos of the church
> See more Mission District homes for sale
> See Mission District home values

3. Round House- 122 Olmstead Hill Rd, Wilton, CT 06897 (above)
Status: Presently off the market

Known as the “Connecticut Round House,” this unique property has been listed for sale a couple times before being recently removed with a list price of $1,750,000 (it was listed in 2008 for $2.3 million). Designed by architect Richard T. Foster, it is a cylindrical masterpiece that sits 12 feet off the ground on its “base” and has the ability to rotate slowly 360 degrees, taking in the nearly four acres of land and a pond. It takes about 50 minutes to complete an entire rotation and can be stopped, slowed down or speeded up. Made of steel, glass and shingles, the 3,000 sq ft home was renovated in 2005 and is completely walled in glass. It features custom ash cabinetry, state-of-the-art Xenon interior lighting, marble and limestone bath finishes, and “Smart House” technology in the main house.” Plus, there is a separate guest house and in-ground lap pool.
> See more photos of the Connecticut Round House
> See more Wilton, CT real estate
> See Wilton, CT home values

4.  Cave house – 1101 N 11th St, Festus, MO 63028 (above)
Status: Presently off the market

The “Cave House” was on the market in a distress sale in 2009, but it appears the owners were able to re-work their adjustable-rate loan and have now happily settled back into cave life. The 17,000 square foot house — er, cave — is in Festus, MO, and has three chambers: a front chamber that contains three bedrooms; a middle chamber that holds the laundry room, storage, and a spare bath, and the back chamber that still has the stage where Ted Nugent, Bob Seger, Ike and Tina Turner, and many other entertainers performed. Obviously, the owners of this cave are very well connected. No furnace or air-conditioning needed; geothermal and passive solar systems keep the home comfortable year-round. (Photo courtesy Caveland.us)
> See more photos of the Cave House
> See Festus, MO homes for sale
> See Festus, MO home values

5. Earthship – 6 High Meadow Dr, Taos, NM 87571 (above)
Status: For Sale – $265,000

That’s right — you won’t find this “earthship” in a well-manicured cul-de-sac in most regions of the U.S., but your chances are much greater in New Mexico or Arizona. Called “Sol Ship,” this one-bed, one-bath earthship is designed for off-the-grid living and uses passive solar thermomass construction that heats and cools the interior. But don’t worry — you can tap into traditional systems if you have a craving for microwave popcorn. Many earthships are a little rough around the edges with recycled materials visibly poking out (tires, cans, bottles) but this is a higher-end earthship with an indoor koi pond and hand-plastered walls with whimsical sculpted displays around the fireplace and walls. Two underground, 3,000-gallon cisterns hold water. Own this home and no one will insult you about your carbon footprint, because it doesn’t exist.
> See more photos of the earthship
> See Taos, NM homes for sale
>See New Mexico home values

6. Geodesic home –  2643 Birch Ave, Batavia, IA 52533 (above)
Status: No longer on the market

Geodesic dome homes rode a wave of popularity in the 1960s and 70s, but their construction is now limited due to challenges in code requirements. While the exterior is round, the interior of geodesic homes contain many angles — just try to find a wall in which to hang a photo, or a long flat wall to position the couch. This four-bed, 3.5-bath dome home sits on 20 acres.
> See more photos of this geodesic home
> See more Batavia, IA homes for sale
> See Iowa home prices

7. Floating home – 2466 Westlake Ave N, Seattle, WA 98109 (above)
Status: For Sale – $975,000

No, Tom Hanks does not live here and this is not the Sleepless in Seattle floating home, but this is a quintessential floating home on Seattle’s Lake Union and better yet — it’s never been lived in. The shingled-style master craftsman design offers two bedrooms and one bath.
> See more photos of the floating home
> See Westlake, Seattle homes for sale
> See Westlake, Seattle home values

8. Old Barn – 9424 Windsong Loop NE, Bainbridge Island, WA 98110 (above)
Status: Recently sold — $542,000

This Bainbridge Island, WA barn was built 104 years ago and was used as a dairy farm before being converted into a home. It retains its barn shape with soaring, cathedral ceilings with exposed beams and rough-hewn floors. Rolling barn doors serve as shutters to two bedrooms and one original wall reveals the original penciled shopping list that includes 2,100 pounds of seeds. Sixteen windows in the open living area draw passive solar heat and natural light.
> See more photos of the barn
> See Bainbridge Island homes for sale
> See Bainbridge Island home values

9. Shoe House — 197 Shoe House Rd, Hellam, PA 17406 (above)
Status: Not listed on the market

Shoe store tycoon Mahlon Haines built this landmark home in 1948 as an advertising gimmick. The house features a front door with a stained-glass portrait of the owner himself, an observation platform, and even a shoe-shaped doghouse. Fittingly, Mahlon once used the home as a guest house, offering weekend stays to elderly couples. Read more about the Shoe house. (Photo courtesy Cool High Quality Pix).
> See Hellam, PA homes for sale
> See Hellam, PA home values

10. Decommissioned missile site – 1874 N Batum Rd, Othello, WA 99159 (above)
Status: For Sale – $3,500,000

We saved the best for last and no — this is not a joke. This is a decommissioned military Titan 1 missile complex that is being listed as a potential residential property and it’s for sale for $3.5 million in Othello, WA (about 3 hours east of Seattle). That’s the “front door” in the photo above, which is a two-ton hatch that leads down six flights of stairs to a network of subterranean rooms and tunnels that all connect to a 125-ft diameter “superdome” with a 65-ft ceiling. According to Windermere real estate agent Kelvin Wallin, 18 Titan 1 missile sites were built during the years 1959-1962 between Colorado and Washington state. This one has three underground missile silos that measure 160-ft deep and 40-ft wide. According to Wallin, this site can withstand and survive any nuclear blast. Twenty years ago, a man purchased this property from the government and intended to turn it into a youth camp, but he died before he could realize his dream. Enjoy your own private well, generator power, and live off the grid. Not much curb appeal, but this beauty was built to last!
> See more photos of the decommissioned missile site
> See Othello, WA homes for sale
> See Othello, WA home values

Riding on the coattails of our excitement about partnering with Apartments.com, it seemed fitting to find this week’s Rental Eye Candy from Zillow’s 90,000 newly acquired rental listings.

An array of museums, beaches and nightlife make Fort Lauderdale, FL one of America’s hottest tourist destinations. For some, the vacation never has to end thanks to this elegantly open, 1-bedroom, 2-bathroom condo. Located in a vintage six-story former Southern Bell Exchange building, soaring ceilings  (approximately 14-ft high) and flowing living spaces make it easy to entertain or  escape from the hustle and bustle. Along with a gourmet kitchen featuring granite counter tops and stainless steel appliances, the building offers residents a roof-top pool, expansive sundeck with panoramic city views, fitness center, movie room, conference room, valet, and a beautifully landscaped boutique park.

A few minutes from major highways and only $2,819/month, this rental provides the perfect combination of convenience, urban chic and carefree living that is often hard to find in the big city.

Check out more homes for rent in Fort Lauderdale, FL, or post a home for rent yourself!

Zillow’s Spencer Rascoff answers timely real estate questions from Zillow Blog and Zillow Advice. This video touches on the pros and cons of renting versus buying.

Have a real estate question you’d like answered? Ask it in Zillow Advice, post it on Zillow’s Facebook page or tweet it to @spencerrascoff or @zillow.

Obtaining a loan for a mortgage payment can be a very involved and intricate process. In some cases, there are steps that prospective homeowners can take to expedite the process such as filing for a pre-qualification or pre-approval. Zillow user Mike_O from Brooklyn, NY is wondering if such preemptive actions are helpful and asked Zillow Advice for a few tips:

Mortgage prequalification – does it really make a big difference?

Click the question above and see what agents and lenders are saying. Have more questions? Get in touch with lenders and compare mortgage quotes and home loans instantly and most importantly – anonymously — on Zillow Mortgage Marketplace.

For the past four years, homeowners across the country have been watching their home values drop. Most have seen them drop substantially – our national Zillow Home Value Index has fallen nearly 24% since home values peaked in 2006.

But for nearly a decade before that, homeowners eagerly watched as their home values rose – sometimes by double-digit numbers from one year to the next.

While one scenario was clearly preferable to homeowners, neither was what we’d call “normal.” So, what was happening in those years? And what can we expect? Will a “normal” housing market ever return? Below, I’ll explore the causes for the run-up in home values, and the subsequent downturn, as well as explain the conditions we’re likely to see in the next several years.

• Home value appreciation between the late 1990s and the mid-2000s was an anomaly.  In the eight years between 1998 and 2005, home values increased 117%, or 10.2% annually.  By comparison, over the eight years prior to 1998, home values increased 12%, or 1.2% annually.  Typical home value appreciation over the long-term is in the range of 2-4% per year.  Generally, real estate will track or just modestly beat inflation or growth in household income.

• Why did home values increase so much from 1998-2005? There are a lot of factors that should be listed here but two key ones are the homeownership rate and the percentage of income devoted to housing costs.  The percentage of households owning a home increased from 65.4% in 1997 to 69.1% in 2005. This represented more than 4 million additional households in the housing market in 2005 above the level that would have been observed had the homeownership rate stayed at 1997 levels. Not only did the percentage of households owning a home increase, but the number of households itself increased by almost 9 million over the time period. Moreover, from 1999 to 2005, the percentage of households spending more than 30% of their income on housing costs (e.g., mortgage payments, taxes, insurance and utilities) increased from 26.7% to 34.5%.  The demand created by more people looking for housing and those people being willing to pay more of their income to own a home is a good start to getting higher-than-normal appreciation in real estate prices.

• Over the next 3-5 years, real estate will return lower than average rates of appreciation.  This is because demand will be relatively soft given higher-than-normal unemployment (and likely higher mortgage rates) and supply will be quite high given a) already historically high levels of inventory on the market (12.5 months of supply in July);  b) that the foreclosure rate will remain at elevated levels because of negative equity and unemployment; and c) lots of sidelined sellers who will be entering the marketplace in the next couple of years (some of whom will also buy, thus increasing demand, but we believe this segment of homeowners represents more supply than demand given an aging demographic).  One thing that will help the demand picture is that household formation should ramp back up once the economic recovery takes firmer hold (but, again, unemployment will be key here too).

• With lower-than-average rates of appreciation in the next 3-5 years, real estate values will be fighting to keep pace with inflation, which will gradually return to the range of 2-3% per year.  This means that in real terms (subtracting inflation rates), there may not be very much appreciation in home values over this time frame.

• Now that the real estate boom is over, people should return to thinking about their home more as a savings account versus a stock market investment.  Or, a home simply as a place to live.  Does this mean that housing is not a good investment?  Not at all.  Among other things, a home mortgage is a forced savings plan that can lead to substantial cumulative savings over the long-term.  Moreover, in a typical housing market in which appreciation roughly tracks inflation, a homeowner is not only getting increased equity by paying down their mortgage, but they are also getting the utility of a place in which to live over which they have ultimate control – no 30-day notice to vacate, no restrictions on which color to paint the bedrooms or whether you can have a pet.  In addition, in many markets around the country, home values have been reset so much during the housing recession that buying looks quite attractive relative to renting right now.  While conventional wisdom holds that buying will usually make more sense than renting if the homeowner plans to stay in the home for at least five years, this time horizon is currently much lower in many markets, meaning that buying beats out renting much sooner.

• While making good economic sense for lots of buyers, homeownership doesn’t make sense for everybody.  People who have a short-time horizon for living in a particular home, value mobility, have uncertain future income, or for whom housing costs associated with a purchase would make up too much of their monthly income, might prefer to rent.  It is clear that the decision between renting and owning is becoming more of an economic decision to many Americans, informed by their particular circumstances, as opposed to either an emotional one or a decision made out of mere social convention.  And, in the end, that’s probably a good thing, whatever decision they ultimately make.

When Zillow execs fire up the griddle and serve breakfast to Zillowites, it’s a sign of two things: sizzling bacon, which also means sizzling Zillow results.

(Photo above, left to right, General Counsel Kathleen Philips, Chief Economist Stan Humphries and VP of New Ventures Chloe Harford)

It’s been a tremendous summer for Zillow on many fronts with new partnerships announced and records shattered. And so, it has become our tradition to celebrate accomplishments like these by serving a company breakfast – or, rather, to have the Zillow execs serve breakfast – to Zillowites.

What exactly did we accomplish this summer? First and foremost, we surpassed July’s record traffic with a new record of 12.5 million unique visitors coming to Zillow in August. This beats our previous record by more than 800k visitors (source: Omniture). Zillow Mobile is also setting records, as we recently announced over 2 million downloads of our apps.  And, for bringing home the bacon (pun absolutely intended), the company earned free breakfast yesterday morning.

And on top of our banner traffic year, the team has been hard at work…

… forging new partnerships with Yahoo! and Apartments.com …

… improving our home shopping experience …

… rolling out the (relatively) new Zillow Premier Agent Program …

… launching new mobile apps for Android and iPad …

…and talking turkey about the future of the housing market with the likes of Fox Business, ABC News, Good Morning America, and Bloomberg.

And we are hiring!  Come help fuel the next wave of growth at Zillow. In addition to getting to work with a great team on challenging problems to transform an industry, who doesn’t like free food served by our own Chief Economist?

For anyone who enjoys staying informed about the real estate industry and reading real estate-related blog posts by RE pros, you’ll be happy to know that the Carnival of Real Estate (CoRE) has returned.

The first host of the new and improved CoRE was Drew Meyers of Virtual Results. Coincidentally, Drew worked at Zillow for many years and was the co-founder of CoRE (along with David Gibbons), so it’s apropos that Drew had a hand in bringing CoRE back to life.

As host of CoRE #177, Drew gave a nod to many recognizable real estate bloggers before handing out gold, silver and bronze medals to bloggers he felt captured the top three spots. Take a look at Drew’s selections.

Also, many thanks goes out to Jay Thompson, The Phoenix Real Estate Guy, who took over the CoRE reins and served up some changes – the main one being that CoRE will appear once a month, not once a week. Good call, Jay.

Lastly, if you want your work to be considered for next month’s CoRE, please submit your best post by Sept. 26. The venerable Kris Berg of San Diego Home Blog is the host!

See you in a month.

It seems like a great time to buy a house (if you don’t have to sell), values are down (so affordability is up), interest rates are at all-time lows, and high levels of inventory are languishing on the market. It all adds up to buyers who have negotiating power.  Yet, the latest housing reports are undoubtedly making many home buyers skittish about entering the market.  Here are just a few tips for people trying to figure out if now is the time to buy:

• Set realistic expectations about home value appreciation. Zillow is expecting minimal appreciation in most markets over the next few years, so the first thing any buyer should do is figure out how long they are planning on staying in the home. If it’s not at least five years in most markets,  consider renting a home, instead of buying.

• Don’t try to time the bottom, you’ll never get it exactly right.  While some markets have further to fall, the steep drop in values are most likely behind us.  Some markets like San Francisco and San Diego are already seeing 5% appreciation year-over-year. If you are planning to buy within the next year or so, you should definitely start shopping.

• Research your loan options. Yes, interest rates are at historic lows, but it’s hard for many potential buyers to get financing let alone a super low rate.  Increase  your chances of finding  the lowest rate available to you by shopping around. Shameless plug:  Zillow Mortgage Marketplace allows you to get custom rates from a variety of banks (national and regional) and brokers. Don’t worry, you can compare rates and lender reviews without sharing any personal information.  You call the lender if you are interested, not the other way around.

This week, mortgage lender Justin McHood explains an FHA streamline refinance program, which is a program designed for people who currently have an FHA loan to take advantage of lowering their interest rate when rates drop with less documentation than a “normal” refinance requires.”
Justin points out some recent changes at HUD that will affect the closing costs. He also encourages people considering re-finance to consult a mortgage professional to see if refinancing makes sense for your unique goals.

Read more about FHA streamline refinance programs.

Photo Credit: ncreedplayer

Last week we compared homes for rent and homes for sale in San Antonio, TX. Today we are heading a little farther east to the home of our beloved King of Rock n’ Roll, Elvis Presley. Yup,  Memphis, TN.

While the Graceland Mansion isn’t included in the collection, we’ve picked out a few homes to help anyone in the midst of deciding whether to buy or rent in the great city of  Memphis. We’ve searched by monthly payment to compare how much home a rent check, or a mortgage payment, of under $1,500, $2,000,  and $2,500 will get you. The mortgage payments are based on a 30-year fixed rate, with 20% down presently being quoted on Zillow Mortgage Marketplace.

Compare Rent vs. Buy Monthly Payment Under $1,500:

For Rent - 5292 Laurie Lane, Memphis, TN 38120 (below):

For Sale – 6529 Cherryhill Parkway, Memphis, TN 38120 (below):

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Compare Rent vs. Buy Monthly Payment Under $2,000:

For Rent – 1124 Misty Isle Dr, Memphis, TN 38103 (below):

For Sale – 2873 Garden Lane, Memphis, TN 38111 (below):

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Compare Rent vs. Buy Monthly Payment $2,500 and Under:

For Rent- 512 Rienzi Dr, Memphis, TN 38103 (below):

For Sale – 6614 Heronswood CV, Memphis, TN 38119 (below):