These are some pictures of the most unusual houses in the world and some are even real. The others are the work of someone using Adobe Photoshop. Can you tell which ones are real?

The one to the right is pretty ingenious. Half carved out of granite and the rest is that impressive rotunda. How else to use space that gravity says you don’t have? At least no one can block your view.

I’m sure there are some people out there debating how they can get that ocean view on their tiny lot, so maybe this will give them some ideas. A treehouse doesn’t have to just be for children . . . and you get to use a rope ladder.

So what if your house is between two unmovable objects, just build between them! So you can make the preservationists happy and just look at that ocean view! Although if this were in the Bay Area, the roof would probably be peeking over the monoliths or even using them as columns for its third story.

If the lot is really small, there are always possibilities, as this place illustrates. Say what you will about it not being seismically sound, but I bet it has a great view!

Answers are below in the extended entry.

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It might, and if so, you might be getting a reduced property tax bill like in my story today.

More than 20,000 Contra Costa County residents and 7,000 residents in Alameda and Solano counties will be eligible for property tax relief this September, county officials said Wednesday.

The majority of homeowners receiving the reduction in property tax in Contra Costa County will be in San Ramon, Antioch, Concord and Brentwood, said County Assessor Gus Kramer. The number of reductions is 10 times more than last year’s approximately 2,000 homeowners.

As bittersweet as paying less property tax is, at least it lessens a little of the pain, right? Although it’s too late for this year’s tax roll, you can request the county taken another look at your house’s value for next year.

You can download request forms at Alameda and Solano counties, but you will have to write to the Contra Costa County Assessor, 2530 Arnold Drive, Suite 100, Martinez, CA 94553 or call 925-313-7400.

Despite all that is said about the downturning market, people will still say things that surprise you.

I made a $520,000 bid on a house that had received no offers in the past 10 months it had been on the market. It started at $799,900 then dropped to $699,900 despite it not meeting its comparative sales. Comparative sales gave the place a value around $450,000 to $600,000. So, I looked at the price and decided to offer from a place I could go up and bargain with the buyer. My price was slightly higher than the last three houses sold on the block, but granted I thought the house was nicer so I was willing to pay more.

It turns out that her agent told my agent that the bid was offensive and “they” were taking it off the market (despite the house already being off the market, so I guess that was some added-value drama.)

So, the house got no offers in almost a year and when someone makes an offer that is less than the inflated asking price, it’s the bidder that’s offensive? Not someone who overprices their house?

Could you imagine people selling a car and telling someone who made an offer, “I’m offended and we’re taking it off the market.” Or trying to sell a used car 40 percent above blue book? Then again, my country neighbors used to say things like, “I would burn it before I would sell it for that price.”

What I have learned is that there are plenty of sellers out there who aren’t realistic. Just because you want $700,000 for your house doesn’t mean it’s worth that. Please do an appraisal, just like I did before I sold my house, and save everyone the time and effort by not selling if you’re just testing the waters. Otherwise you run the risk of being offended by buyers’ offers.

The whirlwind trades of mortgage-backed securities took its toll on Wall Street:

Wall Street ended a volatile week with a sharp decline Friday as investors again succumbed to nervousness about souring subprime loans and rising oil prices. The Dow Jones industrial average fell more than 185 points. . . . Also, concerns about the health of Bear Stearns hedge funds involved with subprime loans, those made to people with poor credit, have weighed on the markets. Investors grew nervous that problems would spread among other lenders.

That’s putting it mildly! (By the way, a hedge fund is an unregulated investment fund for accredited investors only — that’s for Alan Greenspan and other grand poobahs, not the average retirees of this country.)According to the New York Times, it’s collapsing:

Bear Stearns Companies, the investment bank, pledged up to $3.2 billion in loans yesterday to bail out one of its hedge funds that was collapsing because of bad bets on subprime mortgages. . . .

Bear Stearns is bailing one of the funds out because it is worried about the damage to its reputation if it stuck investors and lenders with big losses, said Dick Bove, an analyst with Punk Ziegel & Company.

“If they walked away from it, investors would have lost all their money and lenders would have lost all of the money,” Mr. Bove said. But “if they did that to everyone in the financial community, the financial community would have shut them down.”

If you happened to spot this article from AP, I think many of you may not be surprised.

The survey by Boston Consulting Group showed that 55% of Americans believed they could sell their house for more now than a year ago, down slightly from the 59% who felt that way last summer.

Nearly three-quarters think they could sell their homes within the next six months at a price they set, and 63% believe that real estate is a good or excellent investment.

The positive sentiment comes in spite of housing data that show a downturn in real estate. Last month, the National Assn. of Realtors said sales of existing homes dropped by 2.6% in April to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.99 million units, the slowest sales pace in nearly four years.

Talk about “phantom demand” and the “greater fool” theories!

If you saw today’s story, you will read that:

The UCLA Anderson Forecast reported that the rest of 2007 and 2008 will be affected by the slow housing market. The housing market won’t regain its stability until mid-2009.

Although the UCLA Anderson Forecast report declined to say there would be a recession, the report said there was already a loss of 3,800 jobs. And don’t expect to make any money if you buy your house now.

Time for our regular feature where we see and discuss the cheapest houses in the East Bay. In Alameda County, one of the cheapest on ZipRealty is this little 656-square-foot cottage in San Leandro that looks like it’s better-suited to a commercial use and the listing suggests that it could be a beauty salon. Check out those streets surrounding it like a tiny pink island. Still, all this can be yours for $219,000.

In Contra Costa County, $199,900 will get you a two-bedroom, one-bath 846-square-foot home at 864 10th St. in Richmond, one of the cheapest single-family homes in the county. I have to say the house definitely has personality (check out that garage door!) especially compared to the burned-out and condemned looking properties also being listed. According to the listing, it’s a “true fixer” in a “good area.”

This white clapboard Depression-era bungalow goes for $204,900 in Vacaville and seems to be the cheapest house in Solano County, where the listing says, “Home is not in livable condition, a possible tear-down.” So shouldn’t the price reflect only the price of the lot?

If you all don’t know by now, I think a recession is well on its way. I think all the signs are there. But I also tend to be fiscally pessimistic, so you may want to consult your financial planners.

Either way, while real estate is a great long-term investment, there are better short-term options out there. Even certificates of deposit are promising more than 5 percent, which is probably going to be twice what any price appreciation is going to be on houses this year. I suggest that the average person would be better off not investing in real estate at this time for any big returns in the next year or two. (Please note that flipping has all but ceased, only after several were badly burned.)

If you can stand to wait five or six years, I think prices will increase and there will be profit made.

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Well, if you noticed in the last 24 hours, interest rates rose a significant amount. The average 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage is 6.19 percent today, as opposed to 6.01 percent last week.

Globally, fears of inflation have driven the rates as well as increased investment. The United States didn’t want to be alone in this, so they raised them, too.

Rates are expected to continue to rise probably through the summer while home sales are projected to drop. Still no sign that bank-owned properties are lowering prices significantly, though, so there may be no bargains for the average person.