California Home With Unusual Shape Goes Viral On Zillow Gone Wild

Whether you're hoping to buy a new home or you just love seeing what's for sale, it's hard to beat a few minutes (or hours!) spent scrolling on Zillow. As housing prices keep rising to astronomical heights, for many of us, it's a chance to peek inside our dream homes, judge a bunch of questionable renovations, and imagine life in houses far beyond our budget. But one recent listing featured on Zillow Gone Wild is in a universe all its own. Designed in the 1960s by Finnish architect Matti Suuronen, the Donaldson Futuro is a 793 square foot prefabricated dwelling currently located on a half acre lot near Idyllwild, California. You won't need to hitch a ride from SpaceX to tour the UFO-shaped home, but its $1,495,000 listing price might just make you want to beam yourself into another housing market.

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places and formally recognized by the National Park Service, the futuristic home is thought to be one of only 50 to 60 known examples of this architectural design in existence. The elliptical structure measures just over 26 feet in diameter and 13 feet high, and is made from a reinforced fiberglass-polyester plastic orb. It sits on four V-shaped legs and a central support. Despite its heft and weighing in at 11,900 pounds, the Space Age Futuro was originally designed with portability in mind. Today, it sits perched on a granite rock cropping in the San Jacinto Mountains. It was moved there by Milford Wayne Donaldson, a high-profile architect and historic preservationist who rescued and restored the structure in the late 1970s. If you're looking to buy a new home, and you want something that looks like it was inspired by The Jetsons, this one is for you. For the rest of us, it's fun taking a peek at this unusual home.

There are many reasons why buying a home in California isn't what you might expect, but most people know the state ranks extremely high in terms of average house prices. Despite this inevitability, on Instagram there is nearly universal agreement that the Donaldson Futuro's listing price is out of this world. According to Redfin, the average price per square foot in the Golden State is $471, but this tiny 57-year old house is four times as much. One person mentioned that even if you could stomach the sticker price, maintaining the immaculate restoration could get very expensive. "That fiberglass gel coat has been baking since 1969, and a full professional restoration runs typically $5K to $15K. You don't reshingle this roof. You baby it," they explained on X.

Inside, the ultramodern design also has Zillow Gone Wild fans divided. While a few people said they absolutely loved it, others are less convinced that the home is really out of this world. Because the structure is encircled with oval-shaped windows, the kitchen, living room, and single bedroom are all flooded with natural light. However, as one commenter put it, "All those windows give you the perfect vantage point to watch the next wildfire engulf you!" And although the lime green cabinetry, purple shag carpet, and turquoise built-in seating may embrace period-correct colors for the atomic-inspired look, the interior drew comparisons to Skittles, the Jetsons, and Teletubbies.

That said, perhaps your house hunting goal is intergalactic and you're constantly wondering why builders stopped making atomic style homes. If so, this listing is an extremely rare opportunity to own an architecturally and historically relevant property in a laid-back area with lots to see and do.