Its a great location. But do they build houses differently to account for hurricane winds and flooding? Or is it low risk?

I always thought the Seattle area would be a nice place to build a home. But the land-itself is expensive. There is a pretty mountain pass to the east of Seattle on I-90. There are some pretty hills in Leavenworth, WA. The islands to the west of Seattle are very promising, if its possible to commute to work. But just to be "cute", I was thinking Forks, WA might be nice. Because you might run into some vampires and werewolves. I think the foggy hillside in one of the movie scenes is not actually in Forks but a little bit outside of it. Moses Lake is kind nice. Outside of Washington, I kind of like Kentucky near Louisville and some areas in New York, like Watkins Glen, Ithaca, and the 1000 Islands at the Saint Lawrence River (if you can make it liveable all year round). This last year was my first time seeing Melbourne, FL. That area was nice too.

Thanks for letting me know there was a cash option. It is a beautiful house. I wonder what the property taxes would be on a 1.5 million dollar house out in the middle of nowhere.

Using the highest tax bracket for 2010, the taxes would be 700,000. You get 500,000 as part of the prize, so you would only have to pay 200,000 to get this house. It would be easy for anyone who wants to trade up, if they already own a house. But it probably wouldn't be easy for someone who doesn't already own a home. I wish they would build a home that is less than a million dollars. Or maybe even less than 750K plus 250K cash.