pittsburgh

Oops, they did it again! Bank of America wrongly seized a Pittsburgh home that it mistakenly targeted for foreclosure. This time, it took the parrot, too.

The bank released a public apology on Wednesday to Pittsburgh resident Angela Iannelli for wrongly seizing her home and snatching her beloved pet parrot last October, adding to a pool of similar incidents over the past seven months.

In their rush to foreclose, cases of mistaken foreclosures by banks have been on the rise. That can leave homeowners grappling with more than outrage: In one recent case in Galveston, Tex., a couple whose home was wrongly seized ended up with 75 pounds of rotting fish locked inside. In that situation, as in Iannelli's, the homeowners had not even defaulted on their mortgage -- in fact, they didn't even have a mortgage.

Should Carrie Bradshaw and her gal pals pack their bags and move to Boston? Yes, according to SingleMindedWomen.com, which just released its 2010 list of the top 10 cities for single women. Boston tops the list, followed by Washington DC, New York City, Seattle, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Denver, Pittsburgh, Dallas, and Austin.

In calculating the results, SingleMindedWomen.com took into account factors such as the cost of living, which includes the cost to buy as well as rent property, according to Anne-Marie Nieves, a spokeswoman for the site.

With first-time buyers dominating the real estate scene in 2009 and expected to play a big role in the market in 2010, and with single women accounting for a large proportion of the buying population (21% of all home purchases in 2009, according to the National Association of Realtors), the site's research may tell part of the story of where women choose to purchase in 2010.

You wouldn't be faulted for thinking the Unicat home is a garbage truck. However, it is a high-end, off-road mobile home. Yes, you read that correctly: mobile home. Fasten your seat belt, too, because when you discover this breed of mobile home starts at $500,000 you might get whiplash.

Have a look at the surprisingly comfortable interior of the Unicat and let's compare investing in the off-roading, overnighting, garbage-tank-looking vehicle to homes less mobile...

In 1954, Buckminster Fuller received the U.S. patent for the geodesic dome, a hemi-spherical structure built on a frame of interlocking polygons. (Picture living inside of a giant soccer ball, and you're not far off.) Fuller hoped that geodesic dome structures would catch on big as a solution to the postwar housing crisis.

But like a lot of his designs, (Dymaxion car, anyone?), geodesic domes were never built in the millions that Fuller envisioned. Still, geodesic domes have become the architectural equivalent of a cult favorite film: they found a following among homebuilders and do-it-yourselfers. Geodesic domes are extremely strong and stable, particularly considering their light weight. They can be constructed quickly from modular parts, and they have little surface area relative to how much space they enclose. They create a large indoor space free from columns, walls or other supporting elements. And because a geodesic dome contains no corners, they're said to be fuel efficient as well.

Now the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that a two-bedroom, one-bath geodesic dome is for sale in the city's Lincoln-Larimer neighborhood.

Click through to see this and other domes for sale in the Pittsburgh area.