This is a story about a man and his organ — a pipe organ to be exact. According to WCNC.com, James Ingram of Lexington, S.C., purchased an old  pipe organ from a church and proceeded to build his home around it. He constructed a 30-foot high, cathedral-like living room (see photo above) to accommodate the organ’s nearly 700 pipes and to enhance the acoustics. This is not a hobby for Jim. He is one of the rare few left in the trade who designs, builds and installs church organs.

Mortgage rates for 30-year fixed mortgages are sitting steady below 5.50% this week — the lowest they’ve been all year, according to Zillow Mortgage Marketplace. Looks like they even dipped down to nearly 5.20 percent last night, but have come up again just a bit this morning to 5.38%.

Here’s the chart for 30-year fixed rates from the past 24 hours:

Last week, according to the Zillow Mortgage Rate Monitor, the average 30-year fixed rate was 5.53%, down from 5.92% the week before. The decline was probably due to the government’s decision to buy mortgage-back securities.

Check out the mortgage rate page on Zillow Mortgage Marketplace to see up-to-the-minute rates for different types of mortgages, as well as rates in individual states.

I couldn’t resist bringing to light a funny blog post I saw recently by Robin Rogers of San Antonio. She wrote a post in ActiveRain titled, “Blue Carpet is the kiss of death” — things that make houses sit there and not sell.” It’s refreshing to see this kind of frankness from an agent and it should be required reading for anyone selling their home. Of course, I’m sure it’s not easy to tell a seller that their blue carpet is really a no-no, or their countertops need to be replaced, but it was fun to read.

Other things that are turn-offs, according to Robin:

• Bad feng shui — Homes with stairs that start right in front of the front door and continue straight up to the second floor.
• Bad chi — Homes that are located on a street where there’s a T-intersection in front. Also, homes at the end of cul-de-sacs.
• Puzzling rooms — Homes with non-traditional rooms. (i.e., a garage had been partly converted to a room).

After all, agents and brokers see hundreds of homes a year and after a few years in the business, I’m sure they know immediately what houses will fly off the market and what homes will sit.

Need to be inspired? View some gorgeous kitchen remodeling, bathroom remodeling, and bedroom remodeling ideas in our home improvement hub, Dueling Digs. You might even see a blue carpet floating around in there! (The blue carpeted room I found in the photo above is not really blue, but a bluish-green).

The 119th edition of the Carnival of Real Estate is posted at Housing Chronicles. There were 5 awards given for this week’s top posts, along with a few honorable mentions — head over and take a look to see who won the Mayflower Award for this week’s top post. You can see all of the submissions here.

The carnival will make its next appearance on Monday, Dec. 8 at RealtyThoughts. Please submit your best post by Sunday, Dec. 7, to be considered. Are you a real estate blogger and would you like to host a future edition? If so, get instructions on how to do so here. Please check the complete FAQ list if you have other questions as to how to participate.

Today, if we’re fortunate enough, we gather with family and friends for a meal, give thanks for what we have, and then relax in front of the TV for some football. Or, perhaps an old-time movie classic will come on such as, “It’s a Wonderful Life.” This Frank Capra gem from 1946 stars Jimmy Stewart as George Bailey, a banker and owner of the town’s “Bailey Building & Loan Association.” Bailey is Bedford Falls’ white knight, although he doesn’t know it until his angels show him what life in fictional Bedford Falls would be like, if he were not alive.

Yesterday, USA Today ran a story that little Seneca Falls, NY, an upstate town wedged between two of the Finger Lakes about 300 miles northwest of New York, was the inspiration behind the look ‘n feel of Bedford Falls. While no official association can be found, the article lists some similarities that are hard to deny:

• Both have an old steel truss bridge. Bailey jumps off the one in the movie to rescue Clarence (the angel); Seneca Falls’ has a plaque dedicated to a man who died in 1917 while trying to save a drowning woman.

• Both are on a train line in western New York. The film mentions Buffalo, Rochester and Elmira; a reference to Cornell University, 40 miles south of Seneca Falls, was cut from the script.

• Both have affordable, single-family housing developments named for benefactor-founders: “Bailey Park” and “Rumseyville,” which acknowledges Seneca Falls industrialist John Rumsey.

• The town barber in Seneca Falls, Tommy Bellissima, says that in the mid-1940s he cut the hair of a man named Capra who was passing through en route to visit a relative in Auburn, N.Y. Bellissima said he made the connection to the director only after he saw Capra’s name on a movie poster.

Whether Seneca Falls was truly the inspiration or not, the town has made it so with street signs such as “Angel Avenue,” and “George Bailey Lane.”

Seneca Falls is also located in an upstate NY pocket where housing prices have actually gained value, rather than remained flat, according to our Q3 Real Estate Market Reports. For example, Ithaca, NY, an MSA about an hour from Seneca Falls, gained 5.6% in home values year-over-year compared to Q3 of 2007, with a Zillow Home Value Index of $207,000.

Now, let’s talk about another small town that inspired a movie…

When the Windermere Services Company and the Windermere Foundation invited Zillow to participate in their Thanksgiving food drive with Food Lifeline, which is a local hunger relief agency in Western Washington, we jumped at the chance. The opportunity to partner with Windermere for such a worthy local cause inspired many Zillowites to give big. Over two weeks, the Zillow team collected almost 500 lbs of canned food and other nonperishable items for Food Lifeline. In total, Windermere and Zillow collected  2,430 lbs of food.

A big thank you, Windermere, for sponsoring such a worthwhile philanthropic cause!

It’s no secret that home values fluctuate widely across the country.  What you can get for “X dollars” in one market differs widely in another. As usual in real estate, it’s all about “location, location, location.” With the Q3 U.S. median home value at $202,966, we thought it would be fun to see just how much home you can get for around $200,000. Scanning for-sale listings on Zillow, we found a one-room apartment in Brooklyn, New York, to a sprawling 1.3 acre farm (barn included) in Redford, Michigan. Take a look at these 5 homes for sale for around $200K:

Brooklyn, NY
645 E 26th St, Brooklyn, NY 11210
For Sale: $199,000

What you get: Space and location at the right price. 1,110 sq ft, 1 sizable master bedroom, 1 bathroom, large living room/dining area combo, office room, laundry room and storage on the premises.
Notable facts: Co-op, sublease OK after two years, only 10% down.

See Brooklyn real estate and Brooklyn home values

Riverside, California
44505 Samilin Cir, Temecula, CA 92592
For Sale:$200,000

What you get: 1,294 sq ft, 3 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms, hardwood floors, crown molding, stainless steel appliances, Corian counters.
Notable facts: Recently upgraded home in a great family neighborhood. No HOA dues, low taxes.

See Temecula real estate and Temecula home values

Florida Panhandle
5404 Appledore Ln, Tallahassee, FL, 32309
For Sale:$200,000

What you get:1,835 sq ft, 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, eat-in kitchen, granite counters, tile floors, lots of cabinet space. Living area has vaulted ceilings, wood flooring, and gas fireplace.
Notable facts: Open floor plan. Estimate given for wood floors installed in bedrooms. Enclosed garage can be a 4th bedroom.

See Tallahassee real estate and Tallahassee home values

Redford, Michigan
24400 Schoolcraft, Redford, MI, 48239
For Sale:$200,000

What you get: 1,885 sq ft, 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 1.3 acres.
Notable facts: Fenced yard, in-ground swimming pool and pole barn.

See Redford real estate and Redford home values

Phoenix, Arizona
4724 N 95th Ln, Phoenix, AZ 85037
For Sale: $199,000

What you get: 2,663 sq ft, 5 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, new paint, and new blinds.
Notable facts: Recently updated home close to shopping, dining, and freeway.

See Phoenix real estate and Phoenix home values

There are very few reasons to travel to 3.5 hours northwest from Seattle to the remote city of Forks, Washington, unless you are a surfer, hiker or Twilight follower. Once the center of the Northwest logging industry during the 1980’s and early 90’s, Forks is making a comeback in a way most could never have foreseen — as the hometown of fictional teenager Bella Swan, the main character in the vampire-esque book series, and now hit movie, Twilight.

As one of those hikers and surfers who has traveled through Forks on my way to La Push’s First Beach — the site where Bella came to meet up with Jacob Black who revealed the truth about Edward — I can tell ya, it is the perfect place to play host to the Twilight book series.

Forks has a population of 3,100 and is the rainiest city in the 48 contiguous states with 119 inches of rain a year. Chances are it is dark and gloomy, which is a main reason why Twilight’s author, Stephenie Meyer — who never visited Forks — chose it for its fascinatingly lush, mossy setting. Most residents live and work in and around the area because the next closest city, Port Angeles, is a long and windy hour drive away. To be perfectly honest, Forks is in the middle of nowhere, the resources are limited, it has very few days of sunshine per year and the closest Nordstrom is at least three hours away!

The City of Forks has reported an increase in tourists and avid fans who are trying to get a closer look at the town the Swan’s and Cullen’s call home. The map above of downtown Forks shows the Swan and Cullen homes, Forks High School, the Forks Community High School and the Forks police station where Bella Swan’s father works. Ironically, most of Twilight was filmed in Oregon and some parts of Washington, but not Forks. (This is true — we called the Forks Chamber of Commerce to verify and to their dismay, not one scene was filmed in Forks. Oregon became the filming location choice due to tax concessions, lack of state sales tax and producers’ fears that little Forks could not accommodate all of their housing and culinary needs).

That’s OK. Forks is now the defacto Twilight shrine, with fans arriving from every corner of the U.S. All hail Forks, the new ground zero for anything vampire!

Dean Kamen, inventor of the Segway, has turned his tiny island retreat of North Dumpling Island, off the coast of Connecticut in the Long Island Sound, into the poster project for what America can do to try to get off the energy grid — or, at least slow it down.

According to NPR, Kamen purchased the three-acre island as a retreat in the 1980’s — it comes complete with a lighthouse. When the U.S. Coast Guard told him electrical service was being cut off and the lighthouse was switching to solar power, it was Kamen’s chance to go off the grid and make a statement to the rest of energy hungry Americans. He has a wind turbine attached to a generator, installed solar panels, uses only LED lights, and, of course, uses Segways to get around the island.

The beauty of rich and eccentric people is that they do fun and eccentric things. Karmen has taken to calling himself Lord Dumpling, his North Dumpling Island is an “independent nation.” He  also claims to have his own currency, and he offers visas to visitors of his island.

After two steady weeks for mortgage rates, they’re down below 6.00% again. According to the Zillow Mortgage Rate Monitor, rates for 30-year fixed mortgages fell to 5.92% last week, down from 6.03%.

And this week, those rates kept falling on Zillow Mortgage Marketplace. Last time I checked, the rate for 30-year fixed mortgages was all the way down to 5.46%. Check out the live rate tables here.

Here’s what happened last week in the 20 states that see the most activity on Zillow Mortgage Marketplace:

Update: Rates are getting REALLY low today. As of 1:45 Pacific time, the rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage was 5.38% — that’s the lowest rate we’ve ever seen since Zillow Mortgage Marketplace launched last April!