Shortly after Kevin Schwarz listed a geodesic dome home in Penn Hills for sale, a one-woman real estate agent in California called to express interest.
“They don’t come very often. It’s a unique property,” says Schwarz, a Keller Williams agent who became a quick study in domed homes when Stephen and Christina Burns asked him to list their Penn Hills property for 520 Crocus Avenue for $180,000. They move to Cleveland, where they will try to find another unique home.
“People who like him, really like him, and people who don’t like him, really don’t like him,” says Schwarz. “It’s not for everyone; it was a major factor in the price. But he is in great shape. They did an amazing job taking care of the house. They’ve added air conditioning throughout, split unit air conditioners, and it’s amazing how cool it stays.
520 Crocus Ave in Penn Hills. Photo courtesy of Josh Veon and Orchard Delight.
Built in 1987, the home has three bedrooms and one bath, new flooring, new appliances, and a spiral staircase that leads to a second floor. A patio surrounds the house and the yard has eight varieties of fruit trees, including fig, pear, peach and elderberry.
The house is under contract with the Californian woman, who bought it without seeing it after her agent attended an open house and she took a virtual tour. The sale is expected to close at the end of August.
“She had been looking for a long time, trying to find a unique property in the Pittsburgh area,” says Schwarz. “His agent reached out almost immediately and said, ‘That’s a perfect fit for my client. … I think his biggest thing was finding a property that didn’t need a lot of maintenance. The good thing about this is that you have plenty of space. The dome has two bedrooms and a large loft that functions as a bedroom but could be a large studio up there.
520 Crocus Ave in Penn Hills. Photo courtesy of Josh Veon and Orchard Delight.
Geodesic domes are spherical structures developed by an American engineer and architect R. Buckminster Fuller as practical buildings that offer both strength and efficiency. Searching for them, Schwarz found at least 10 domed homes in western Pennsylvania, including another currently up for sale in Stahlstown.
This Westmoreland County home located in 160 Ambrose Road. has three bedrooms and two bathrooms and comes with 6 acres of land. Built in 1979 and recently renovated, it consists of a floor, a basement and a garage for four cars. It is listed for $455,000.
It’s hard to price a domed home because there aren’t really any comparable home sales in a neighborhood, Schwarz says. It can also be more difficult to obtain financing for unique properties such as domes or underground homes, he says, so buyers often have to find a bank offering a portfolio loan, a mortgage that the lender does not will not sell in the secondary mortgage market. These may have a higher interest rate.
“From what I’ve read, from a construction perspective, the amount of materials you use in a dome is less than what’s required for a standard single-family home,” says Schwarz. “I have found that building a dome is cheaper and more fuel efficient, so I think there are a lot of benefits, especially at this time when we have a lot of housing needs. There is a lot of utility in the domes.
173 Harvey Road in Sarver.
Another dome, 173 Harvey Road in Sarver, just sold for $400,000. Built in 1992, it has five bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms and nearly 4 acres of land. The property also has two gas fireplaces, a new terrace and an outbuilding with heating and air conditioning.
A second dome at Sarver, at 149 Woodbury Drive, sold in 2017 for $170,000. In Mercer, a double-domed house at 2347 Leesburg Grove City Road. located on over 6 acres sold for $250,000 last year.
Schwarz also found three dome house neighbors in McCandless Township – 8516 Wittmer Road., 8518 Wittmer and 8519 Wittmer — all of which have changed owners in the last five years.
8518 Wittmer Road in McCandless Township.
Allegheny County property records show a dome at Green Tree at the corner of Elmhurst and Greentree Roads. Built in 1987, it has four bedrooms and two bathrooms. And one to 2933 Trafford Road in Murrysville caught the attention of passers-by and the media when Robert Thompson built it in 2005.
Geodesic dome at the corner of Elmhurst and Greentree roads. Photo by Jennifer Baron.
A single dome — owned by developer Azhar “Lee” Leeton — is located at Olivant Place in Lincoln-Lemington and offered by the couple as an Airbnb. They advertise this house as the original “Yaca-Dome”, built in 1969 by the late landscaper Joseph Yacoboni.
Yacoboni patented his construction method in 1975, according to the Airbnb listing, and has built 26 of his domes across the country. The home, which the owner calls “The Igloo,” has vintage furnishings but plenty of updates, such as Wi-Fi.
Schwarz suspects that many people, like him, are fascinated by domed homes but might never consider buying one.
Yaca-Dome Airbnb ad on Olivant Place in Lincoln-Lemington.
“A lot of people who came to the open day [in Penn Hills] had no intention of buying a dome,” he says. “We had a lot of designers who came in, who were absolutely enthralled with the house. I don’t know if you have to have an artistic style to live in a dome, but the people who lived there had an eclectic mid-century modern style and the designers who passed by loved every inch of this property, from the decor to the house itself.
Read more stories about real estate in Pittsburgh.
Comments are closed.