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Tuesday, 6 October 2020

10 Awesome A-Frame Homes You Can Buy Right Now

Functional and beautiful, A-frame homes feature a distinctive shape that separates them from tract life.

Often found out in the country, they serve as ski chalets, vacation homes, and weekend getaways. They’ve developed quite a following among Pinterest fanatics on the hunt for cozy (and aesthetically pleasing!) dwellings.

We scoured nationwide listings and found 10 awesome A-frame houses on the market right now.

They represent everything from simple cabins to lakefront compounds for a crowd. Inside, they’re rustic, dramatic spaces filled with special nooks and crannies. Outside, their triangular peaks reach to the sky.

Take a look at this range of incredible A-frames you can buy right now.

11955 Ottawa Ct, Canadian Lakes, MI

Price: $312,500

Up-north A-frame: Overlooking Lake of the Clouds, this three-bedroom, 1,684-square-foot cabin was built in 1972.

It includes a three-season room, an outdoor porch with views, and newer appliances.

It’s a turnkey vacation property with a boat dock, whole-house generator, and the option to purchase two additional adjacent lots.

Canadian Lakes, MI A frame — Canadian Lakes, MI
realtor.com

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94 Birch Cir, Campton, NH

Price: $185,000

Ski mountain A-frame: This three-bedroom A-frame sits amid the trees on nearly 3 acres, just a half-hour from three major ski areas—Waterville Valley, Loon Mountain, and Cannon Mountain.

It includes a three-season porch, which the listing says could easily be converted into a year-round living space.

There’s also a detached garage for storage and a level backyard with a fire pit. The home needs a little bit of love, but could quickly become a mountain vacation home anyone would envy.

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100 Willow Dr, Lords Valley, PA

Price: $218,000

Bob’s A-frame: According to the listing details, this abode once belonged to a gentleman named Bob, who saved the home from demolition.

Built in 1963, the three-bedroom home has 1,100 square feet of living space. The current owners rehabbed the master suite and living room, raised the roof to expand the kitchen, and added new windows.

There’s still plenty to do, but it’s still a plenty livable place. An enterprising buyer could stay here while building a dream home on the surrounding wooded acre.

Lords Valley PA A frame — Lords Valley, PA
realtor.com

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274 Chickadee Ln, Bailey, CO

Price: $220,000

Blank slate A-frame: Built in 1964, this rustic A-frame needs a little love. Its petite profile only offers a single bedroom and 1,000 square feet.

However, it sits on a full acre lot, full of pine and aspen trees, tucked at the end of a cul-de-sac.

Surrounded by parks, trails and limitless outdoor adventure, yet close to shopping and dining, this cute cabin could be the gateway to something special.

Bailey, CO a frame — Bailey, CO
realtor.com

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23110 Roden Ln, Pioneer, CA

Price: $330,000

Peaceful living A-frame: Tranquil and set on just over an acre, this two-bedroom home has beamed ceilings, a wall of windows, and updates throughout.

Way out in the Sierra foothills, this place is close to rivers, hiking, and skiing.

Pioneer CA A frame — Pioneer, CA
realtor.com

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10 Peaslee Rd, Merrimack, NH

Price: $279,900

Commuter-friendly A-frame: Built in 1966, this two-bedroom country getaway has had quite a few updates over the decades. It’s only had a single owner, however.

It has a two-story wall of windows to take advantage of the wooded views and natural light.

A walkout lower level makes it an easy home to expand if a buyer wants to go bigger.

Merrimack, NH A frame — Merrimack, NH
realtor.com

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1656 Pawnee Dr, South Lake Tahoe, CA

Price: $415,000

Tiny Tahoe A-frame: This quarter-acre lot has conservancy land behind it and sits across from a popular biking and hiking trail.

Highlights of the two-bedroom, 909-square-foot home include knotty-pine ceilings, a remodeled kitchen, an upgraded bathroom, and an outdoor fire pit.

The house is being sold along with the furniture, for a year-round, turnkey vacation home.

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109 Lake Way Ln, Jasper, AL

Price: $749,900

Waterfront A-frame: This three-bedroom A-frame is just one part of a multihome compound on 6.5 acres.

Sitting right next to Lewis Smith Lake, it has plenty of space to spread out and 300 feet of rocky waterfront.

Other dwellings on the property include a one-bedroom bungalow and another three-bedroom home.

Jasper, AL a frame — Jasper, AL
realtor.com

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3340 Peterson Rd, Mansfield, OH

Price: $164,900

Getaway A-frame: Close to Charles Mill Lake, this two-bedroom,1,248-square-foot home sits on 2 wooded acres and is surrounded by views.

Built in 1967, it features a great room with stone fireplace, a large front deck, mudroom, new roof, and a new back deck.

Mansfield, OH a frame — Mansfield, OH
realtor.com

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15809 Allen Ave, Belton, MO

Price: $235,000

Suburban A-frame: Built in 1971, this big, five-bedroom home sits on a large, half-acre lot.

It’s loaded with upgrades, like bamboo flooring, a wood-pellet stove, and beautiful built-ins.

For outdoor lounging, you have your pick of the home’s three decks. There’s also a huge finished basement, with a bar, refrigerator, and additional storage.

Belton, MO a frame — Belton, MO
realtor.com

The post 10 Awesome A-Frame Homes You Can Buy Right Now appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com®.

source https://www.realtor.com/news/unique-homes/10-awesome-a-frame-homes-you-can-buy-right-now/

‘Silence of the Lambs’ Home Returns to the Market

Alexis Zakis, Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

Four years after it last changed hands, a Pennsylvania home that played a crucial role in “The Silence of the Lambs” is on the market again.

The Queen Anne Victorian at 8 Circle St. in Perryopolis, which was built in 1910, is available for $298,500.

The 2,334-square-foot home on the railroad tracks served as the fictional home of Jame Gumb, aka Buffalo Bill, in the Oscar-winning movie from 1991.

Some creepy scenes took place in the home, but it was all Hollywood magic. There is no history of real horror—or moths—on the premises.

“When we got the call to go over and meet with [the owner], I’m not going to lie, I was totally freaked out,” says listing agent Eileen Allan. “And then we got to the house and I forgot … that it was in the movie. It just seemed like we were walking back in time. It just seems like you’re in a vintage house, and nothing about it is scary or reminds you of a horror movie.”

She notes that there is no well in the basement, although everyone asks. Those scenes were shot on a soundstage.

“If I didn’t know that they filmed the movie [here], there’d be no sign of it anywhere,” Allan says. “It just seems like it’s like a really cool house that’s been preserved really well.”

There are four bedrooms and large living spaces. Original details include hardwood flooring, light fixtures, pocket doors, wallpaper, and fireplaces.

“It has the vintage vibe with all the big, thick molding everywhere and the woodwork. It’s just really spacious, and it gets a bunch of light, too, so it’s really bright,” Allan says.

The house appeared shabby in the movie, but that was a cinematic illusion.

“It looks similar, just like from the foyer shot. But then the other areas in the house, they had it all trashed for the movie, so it looks way nicer in person now,” Allan says, adding that people like to re-enact scenes from the movie when they get inside.

The kitchen features newer appliances, and the attic space has a newly refinished floor.

Allan says there is one issue that may be a problem for a house this size. There’s only one bathroom.

“The house is big, so there’s an area where people could put in another bathroom off the kitchen,” Allan says. “There’s also a third floor; it’s the attic room that has walls up. It would just need separate heating and cooling up there; but there’s so much space, somebody could put a whole other bedroom and bathroom up there.”

Everybody who sees the house in person is enthused about it, Allan says.

“Everyone is just really into it because of the movie, so they’re excited and they’re, like, ‘I remember seeing this part in the movie. I remember seeing this part,’” she says. The owner says people often stop by and take photos or knock on the door to see if they can check out the inside, she adds.

The house previously came on the market in 2015, and was the most popular house on realtor.com®. It was also the second most popular house of the year. The current owner, who bought the house in 2016 for $195,000, is retiring and moving south.

“It’s really cool because he actually worked for the FBI,” Allan explains. “He got his FBI credentials in 1991 and received them from the director of the FBI who also in 1991 did a cameo in the movie to give Jodie Foster [who plays agent Clarice Starling] her credentials.”

The home sits on 1.7 acres of level land about 45 minutes outside of Pittsburgh near the Youghiogheny River.

The house’s wraparound porch would be a lovely place for a nice glass of Chianti. It brings you up close and personal to the train tracks and the train that goes by a few times each day.

“It is so close, it’s really crazy to see when it goes by, because it goes really fast,” Allan says, “But when you’re inside the house, you don’t hear anything. Obviously you do when you’re standing out in the front yard; I mean it is in the front yard.”

There’s real history in the outbuildings, not just movie history. The detached three-car garage used to be the Layton Station General Store and train station in the 1880s.

Allan says the previous owner planned to turn the vintage train caboose near the in-ground pool into a pool house but never did. It can serve as an intriguing project for the next owner.

The property would make a great private home on a large lot with a pool or could be a business venture, Allan says.

The new buyers could “turn it into an Airbnb [rental] or a bed-and-breakfast setting for people that are into scary movies,” says Allan, who has yet to see the classic thriller.

“Once we sell it and I don’t have to go back into it, I’ll probably watch it,” she says.

The post ‘Silence of the Lambs’ Home Returns to the Market appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com®.

source https://www.realtor.com/news/unique-homes/silence-of-the-lambs-home-returns-to-the-market/

Motley Crue’s Nikki Sixx Ready To Rock Out of His $5.7M SoCal Mansion

nikki sixx westlake house — Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images, realtor.com

The co-founder and bassist of Mötley Crüe, Nikki Sixx, has been living a relatively quiet life for the last several years in a gorgeous home in Westlake Village, CA.

However, he’ll no longer be the rocker-in-residence in this quiet Southern California suburb if he has his way—he has recently put his Mediterranean-style mansion on the market for $5.7 million.

Sixx purchased the 10,300-square-foot home in 2015 for $4,125,000, and proceeded to make it his own. However, his makeover isn’t exactly what you might expect from the legendary rocker.

The listing agent, Emil Hartoonian of The Agency, describes it this way: “This home is special in many ways. … [It has] a storybook presence, scaled with magnificent grandeur and flow. The home is a perfect haven for comfort, retreat, and inspiration.”

With its arched windows and doorways, coffered ceilings, crystal chandeliers, as well as inlaid wood and marble flooring, the rocker’s estate is quite elegant.

Estate of rocker Nikki Sixx in Westlake Village, CA
realtor.com

The home does have nods to the rocker’s background.

“The private theater and lounge are the pure essence of rock,” says Hartoonian. “It’s tailored to the owner’s style and function, while paying homage to distinguished rock history.”

The homage to rock history, though, doesn’t mean that this lower-level entertainment area is all about the pure debauchery often associated with the Crüe. This dedicated movie theater has a posh club vibe, thanks to its lush velvet recliners, tasteful animal-print carpeting, and stately office/studio and game areas.

With five bedrooms and 6.5 bathrooms, there’s plenty of room in the home to accommodate a large family or many guests—without the concern of prying eyes. It sits on a 1.2-acre lot behind the guarded gates of North Ranch Country Club Estates.

The grounds include a pool and spa with multiple fountains, a substantial Mediterranean-style cabana with a fire pit, lush lawns, meticulously manicured box hedges and rosebushes, plus mature landscaping almost everywhere you look.

The main living spaces have a multitude of luxe features. The high-ceilinged master suite boasts a formal entry, a private living room with a fireplace, a spalike bath, and an enormous walk-in closet.

Private living room in the master suite
realtor.com

The grand, two-story entry hall, the traditional style billiard-room, and the floral-draped dining room are also impressive.

Sixx, 61, founded Mötley Crüe in 1981, with its long-term drummer, Tommy Lee. At present, he’s making his home sweet home in Wyoming, after living in the Los Angeles area for 40 years.

As he puts it on his Facebook page, “Being relocated in Wyoming most of the time, I am feeling reconnected to some new creativity already. Right now, I am here to reset, restart and recreate. I am working on a book, a musical and awaiting a world tour with @motleycrue…”

The post Motley Crue’s Nikki Sixx Ready To Rock Out of His $5.7M SoCal Mansion appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com®.

source https://www.realtor.com/news/celebrity-real-estate/motley-crue-nikki-sixx-selling-mansion/

Americans Are Moving in Droves: Will It Totally Remake the Electoral Map?

election moving suburbs — Tony Frenzel for realtor.com

In just four weeks, voters from all corners of this bitterly divided country will cast their votes for the man who will either become or remain America’s next president. Pollsters, pundits, and politicos have obsessed over the ever-shifting electoral map and how a handful of swing counties and states could decide whether President Donald Trump or former Vice President Joe Biden will be named the nation’s commander in chief in what is shaping up to be the most contentious election ever.

There’s a head-spinning number of variables at play: the continuing coronavirus crisis, a struggling economy, a reckoning on systemic racial issues and police violence, increasing crime in big cities, and, most recently, the pitched fight over replacing Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court.

However, the race could come down to the demographic shifts of where people live—and the proportion of blue states vs. red states. And that, according to a recent realtor.com® analysis, appears to be going through a major change.

Since the last election in 2016, the lack of housing affordability has forced more folks priced out of the ultraexpensive blue cities into cheaper red ones, turning these areas shades of purple: true swing states. And COVID-19 is helping to accelerate shifts from city areas to suburban battlegrounds.

That’s why four swing states that Trump won in 2016 have the potential to flip in the former vice president’s favor in this election, according to our analysis, based on search activity on realtor.com home listings.

Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Florida, and Michigan could tip into Biden territory if home buyers from blue counties looking at homes in red counties went through with their purchases. With these razor-thin margins, that could be just enough to swing the election—or not, if home searchers decide to put off their buying decisions.

“This movement could be enough to mean states that went for Trump in 2016 may go for Biden in 2020,” says realtor.com Chief Economist Danielle Hale. “If people take their political beliefs with them, that could lead to a changing electoral map.”

Dueling campaign signs for the Republican and Democratic candidates sit out in Braddock, PA. Pennsylvania is seen as one of the key swing states in November’s election.
Justin Merriman/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Only one of 30 confirmed red states, Georgia, is not expected to be more blue in this election.That’s due to folks from liberal strongholds such as New York and California, as well as more local, progressive cities, relocating to these more conservative parts of the country that boast lower costs of living.

Eight blue states plus Washington, DC, are expected to trend more red this year. However, none is expected to tip for Trump.

“COVID[-19] helped exacerbate some trends that were happening before,” says Jonathan Bydlak, interim director of the governance program at the R Street Institution, a think tank. “There’s no doubt people are moving out of some of these higher-tax states, like California and New York, [and into states] where homes are more affordable, taxes are lower, and jobs more plentiful. That obviously has electoral complications.”

To come up with these findings, realtor.com looked where home shoppers were based and the counties where they were searching for real estate online from August 2017 through August 2020. Our analysts looked at the percentage of the population in each county that voted Republican and Democratic in the 2016 presidential election. They then assumed that same percentage of home shoppers would bring those political affiliations to the counties where they were seeking to buy homes.

That additional percentage was used to determine if a state would remain Republican or Democratic—or flip.

The states that could flip from red to blue in 2020

All eyes are on the swing states this year, particularly Florida, the biggest electoral prize among them.

Florida voters elected Trump in 2016 by just 1.2% of the vote margin. This year, Biden may have a better shot of winning over Sunshine State voters. Four of the five states that buyers were browsing Florida real estate from were based out of solidly blue territory: New York, New Jersey, Illinois, and California, according to the realtor.com analysis.

Seniors play golf at Leisureville, an age-restricted senior community, in Pompano Beach, FL. The Sunshine State has long attracted retirees, many of whom come from left-leaning states.
EVA MARIE UZCATEGUI/AFP via Getty Images

Buyers from the red state of Georgia also looked at Florida homes online. But they hailed from blue counties within Georgia.

“People are indeed leaving expensive coastal areas and are going to areas where generally homes are more affordable,” says Hale. The median home list price was $345,050 in Florida—compared with $550,050 in New York and $698,550 in California, according to August realtor.com data.

Many of these peripatetic folks were retirees; about 587,700 people aged 60 or older moved to Florida in 2018, according to the latest U.S. Census Bureau data. And while baby boomers are more likely to identify as Republicans than, say, millennials, many of these retirees are coming from fiercely left-leaning states.

If they go ahead and move to Florida, it could shift the state 0.7% to the left. With an additional 0.9% of Florida residents looking at out-of-state real estate, that shift could be just enough to barely swing this crucial state.

Other coin-toss states that have traditionally swung Democratic in recent years could see similar shifts. Michigan could pick up a 0.4% increase in Democrats while losing the same percentage of Republicans, according to the realtor.com analysis; Pennsylvania and Wisconsin could experience a 0.6% and 0.8% boost in Democrats, respectively. Trump won those states by margins of 0.2% of a percentage point in Michigan and 0.7% in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

“Trump won by a very small margin. They were part of what used to be called the Blue Wall in the Midwest,” says demographer William Frey, of the Brookings Institution, a Washington, DC–based think tank. So it wouldn’t take much to flip them back.

A suburban development in Austin, TX. — A suburban development in the Austin, TX, metro area. The left-leaning city in a largely red state is a tech hub attracting transplants from Silicon Valley.
RoschetzkyIstockPhoto/iStock

Many younger professionals are choosing more affordable cities where they can find good jobs. Burgeoning tech hubs in places like Austin, TX; Salt Lake City; Raleigh, NC; and Denver have siphoned workers out of Silicon Valley with its mind-bogglingly high price tags. (The median home list price in Silicon Valley’s San Jose, CA, was $1.2 million compared with $392,300 in Austin.) And many are bringing their political affiliations with them.

That could have a significant impact on future elections when states like Texas, North Carolina, Georgia, and Arizona could play a bigger role. These traditionally more conservative states have become more liberal in recent years as they’ve attracted more millennials, a more progressive, racially diverse generation, and those leaving more expensive blue states behind.

Could the pandemic swing the election?

Many are predicting that the continuing exodus from the big cities and into the suburbs, exacerbated by the pandemic, could cause political ripples. But it’s too early to tell how pervasive this deurbanization trend really is—and how much impact it will have on the nation’s political breakdown.

“The big question is where are the New York City and San Francisco refugees going,” wonders Stanford University political science professor Jonathan Rodden, author of “Why Cities Lose: The Deep Roots of the Urban-Rural Political Divide.” “If they are moving to suburbs or other parts of New York state or California … this will have no impact on the Electoral College.”

But if, say, the New Yorkers are heading to Pennsylvania or the San Franciscans are moving to the swing state of Arizona, that could be a much bigger deal.

A moving van drives through the desert in Arizona.
3dan3/iStock

“We don’t know how much of this is actually happening,” Ashley Koning, director of the Eagleton Center for Public Interest Polling at Rutgers University, says of the urban to suburban shift. “We know home sales in the suburbs are up. But in battleground states, this movement would have to be a critical mass to sway election results.”

The latest political battleground: The suburbs

“The suburban voting block has become so incredibly important in this election cycle,” says Koning. “White suburban votes in past election cycles have [typically] gone for the Republican candidates. [But] suburban voters are becoming somewhat of a swing voter.”

Suburban women are a particularly important voting bloc in this election.
visualspace/Getty Images

Suburban women, in particular, could help determine the election. And the suburbs are becoming more racially diverse: Minorities represented more than a third of suburban residents in the 2000s, according to the Brookings Institution. Those who fled the cities for the suburbs during the pandemic could also signal a change—if they registered to vote in time in their communities.

How these voters perceive the candidates, not just party loyalty, could help shift the electoral map. For example, Trump’s policies appealed to many former Democrats in the Rust Belt in 2016, which may have helped him to win the election.

“It’s not that Biden is winning the suburbs,” says Bydlak. “It’s that many people who live in the suburbs may be turned off by certain policies of the president.”

The post Americans Are Moving in Droves: Will It Totally Remake the Electoral Map? appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com®.

source https://www.realtor.com/news/trends/election-2020-biden-trump-pandemic/