A previous article considered the issue of whether underground homes are environmentally friendly. If you are convinced that they will save you energy costs and are safer for all types of weather, as long as you do not live in flood prone areas, and would like to buy or build one, here are some underground homes for sale. View the attached slide show for pictures. The websites where you can read the details about them are included, as well as some sites of builders if you would like to build your own.
Arizona and New Mexico are two states where it is easy to find underground homes. One dome house in Fountain Hills north of Phoenix, AZ is mostly buried underground, but is incredibly light and bright inside because of a window tower above the dome. It is truly beautiful and asking price is $270,000. It is listed first because it seems like an excellent buy.
For $139,000, there is a 950 square foot nest style earthship, designed and built by Mike Reynolds with Solar Survival, in Piedre Lumbre Estates on the Abiquiu Reservoir in northern New Mexico in Taos. It is self-sufficient on fenced five acres with a property tax of only $400 and annual utility cost of $200. It uses an earth berm, fireplace, solar gain and natural ventilation to keep the house at 70 degrees year-round.
In Medford, Oregon there is a private concrete in the earth home for $229,000. It is on five timbered acres, has a large sunny garden area, and large shop. It is low maintenance and energy efficient.
Diana and Ed Peden are selling abandoned missile sites in states like Colorado, Kansas, Georgia, Indiana and Arizona if you have the cash to afford them. Few mortgage companies will loan money on these. There are videos of many underground homes on their website. They have lived in a decommissioned Atlas E site in Kansas in an underground home themselves for 16 years. They began selling missile sites in 1995 and by January 2010 had sold 49 of them. Next are three examples of what they have for sale in Missouri, New York and Indiana. Check their website for more pictures of these properties, current prices and more underground homes.
In Paris, Missouri near Mark Twain Recreational Lake for a firm cash price of $295,000 you get 13 acres with a nuclear blast-proof 8,200 square foot floor space previous communications center. Its ceiling and walls are 2 feet thick with 2 to 4 feet of earth cover and a metal shield completely wrapping the building. There are heavy blast doors and an emergency-escape-hatch exit. The well is 900 feet deep and it has lighting, pumps, heating, cooling and dehumidification systems.
In the Adirondack Mountains of New York, the Atlas F site is for sale, reduced from $4.6 million to $750,000. The steel silo drops 180 feet into the earth and has a 2,300 square foot contemporary, finished-interior, two-story luxury home with spiral staircase and generator. The additional 2,000 square foot above ground home's wraparound porch hides the underground entry. It is located in an airport subdivision with a 2,050 foot FAA approved runway.
In southeastern Indiana, a former Nike missile base is for sale for $1.5 million with 14.5 acres, three underground missile magazines each 5,000 square feet, and a horse barn with four stables. One is converted to a residence and includes an indoor swimming pool. Another is a shop and garage. There is a remote-controlled rolling front gate and high-security fencing topped with barbed wire.
The Underground Buildings: Architecture & Environment website has links to over twenty sites of builders of underground homes, plans, information on building and financing them. Due to the changing real estate market, many of the links to properties for sale are simply gone or outdated.
If you are considering building an underground home, one builder based in the North Georgia Mountains is Subterranean Home Builders. Another is Formworks Building, Inc., out of Durango, Colorado, which has specialized in earth sheltered homes since 1979 and "has designed and built more earth-sheltered, green roof homes than any other builder in the world." See their website for the photos of unique homes they have built.
The company Vivos has had a huge surge of buyers for their underground bunkers. They are taking $25,000 and $50,000 deposits for people to have a place in their underground shelters for several thousand people or they also sell private bunkers for families. Watch the attached Vivos Genesis tour video.
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