Embrace the crazy

The most gloriously hideous homes in America? Two Houston abodes rank high onnational list

The galaxy-themed wet bar lights up at night.
Houston Association of Realtors
According to the realtor’s description, 158 Sandy Grove in Nassau Bay is “idealfor [a] discriminating lifestyle.”
Houston Association of Realtors
158 Sandy Cove boasts lakefront views from every room; including the blacktile-clad master bathroom.
Houston Association of Realtors
Highlights of the master bedroom include a custom glass box bed and purplespeakers.
Houston Association of Realtors
The movie theater features custom seating and audio/visual systems.
Houston Association of Realtors
Guests will be blown away by the game room's custom pool table.
Houston Association of Realtors
We think the kitchen would have looked better with purple appliances.
Houston Association of Realtors
Purple reigns in the dining room.
Houston Association of Realtors
Forget the lakefront views - the true centerpiece of this room is a gold dolphinstatue on the coffee table.
Houston Association of Realtors
1818 Willowmoss Court, located in the Lazybrook/Timbergrove neighborhood, isrelatively unassuming from the exterior.
Houston Association of Realtors
Sure, the kitchen wallpaper is a bit dated - but that's not terribly uncommonfor a home built in the 1960's.
Houston Association of Realtors
Things start getting crazy in one of the bedrooms, which features a wallpaperedceiling and complementary geometric bedding.
Houston Association of Realtors
Apparently builders had a difficult time finding nine matching windows for thesunroom.
Houston Association of Realtors
The pièce de résistance of this home is the master bedroom - also known as fiftyshades of green.
Houston Association of Realtors
After being thoroughly nauseated by all the green, try making your way up thestairs that divide the master bedroom.
Houston Association of Realtors
An animal-themed narrative comes alive on the walls of the guest bedroom.
Houston Association of Realtors
We're not entirely sure, but that may just be a statue of Toy Story protagonistWoody.
Houston Association of Realtors

If you’re in the market for a new home and have yet to find something that takes your breath away, today may just be your lucky day.

National real estate blog Curbed recently posted its annual round up of “the year’s most gloriously hideous listings.” The listicle features 13 different homes, most of which boast hefty price tags, insane amounts of square footage and plenty of “unique” features.

According to the realtor’s description, 158 Sandy Grove in Nassau Bay is “ideal for [a] discriminating lifestyle.”

Two Houston-area homes made it onto the list, including a Nassau Bay lakefront mansion decorated in an entirely purple motif and an unassuming Lazybrook home that showcases some extremely creative uses for wallpaper.

According to the realtor’s description, 158 Sandy Grove in Nassau Bay is “ideal for [a] discriminating lifestyle.” The four bedroom, 3,693 square foot home features a backlit galaxy-themed bar, a $100,000 movie theater and neon lighting throughout.

Highlights of 1818 Willowmoss Court, located in the burgeoning Timbergrove/Lazybrook neighborhood, include a master bedroom plastered entirely in green — green and gold wallpaper, green shag carpeting and green ceiling tiles. To further complicate life in the color-crazed residence, several different rooms appear to be split level.

The Willowmoss Court home was featured on Swamplot earlier this year, and prompted a slew of responses from readers. One pointed out that “the sauna is tasteful” (it is quite nice), and another joked that the home made her want to “wear puffy taffeta dresses and sniff cocaine.”

A reader joked that the home made her want to “wear puffy taffeta dresses and sniff cocaine.”

Unfortunately, the home has since been sold. But the good news is that 158 Sandy Grove can still be had for a cool $2.2 million. The listing doesn’t specify whether or not the ceiling-suspended dining room table is included.

For a closer look at the two homes, check out some of our favorite photos from the listings pages in this story's slideshow.

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Houston ranked No. 3 destination for Gen Zers on the move for 2023

Photo by Alexander Londoño on Unsplash

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As Gen Z enters adulthood, many are flocking to the nation's biggest cultural hubs like New York City, Los Angeles, and now Houston, which had the third-highest inflow of Gen Zers in 2023.

H-Town's new reputation as a Gen Z hotspot was unveiled in a recent report by American home improvement brand This Old House, which analyzed migration trends across multiple generations using 2023 U.S. Census Bureau data.

Houston saw an influx of 22,868 Gen Z residents last year to become the generations third most popular city. That's up from ranking as the No. 11 most popular city in 2022. Houston gained fewer than 7,600 new Gen Z residents during that time in comparison to 2023's migration trend.

Houston started gaining traction as an up-and-coming destination for Gen Zers last year, when the "experience-hungry generation" was on the hunt for an affordable place to live with vast opportunities for entertainment, education, or employment.

Real estate marketplace Zillow seems to agree on a statewide scale, declaring Texas as the No. 1 destination for Gen Zers on the move in 2024.

While Houston saw big gains in its Gen Z population last year, many other big cities saw a mass exodus.

"El Paso, Texas, has lost the most residents from this generation, with a drop of 5,607, a sharp turn from 2022 when the city saw an increase," the report said. "Other cities, including Plano, Texas; Memphis, Tennessee; McKinney, Texas; and Wichita, Kansas, are seeing similar declines."

The report also surprisingly revealed that Houston is also one of the top destinations for millennials and Gen X, whereas both New York City and Los Angeles lost more residents among those two generations in comparison.

Houston ranked as the No. 1 city for Gen Xers and No. 4 for millennials based on their respective migration trends in 2023. Houston gained 6,312 new Gen X residents last year – the most nationwide – and the fourth-highest amount of millennials (5,301 new residents).

"Gen X, baby boomers, and the Silent Generation are also moving away from major cities, particularly New York City and Washington, D.C.," the report said. "They’re heading to some of the same cities as Gen Z, including Houston and Jacksonville, Florida."

The top 10 cities that gained the most Gen Z residents in 2023 are:

No. 1 – New York City, New York
No. 2 – Los Angeles, California
No. 3 – Houston, Texas
No. 4 – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
No. 5 – Chicago, Illinois
No. 6 – San Diego, California
No. 7 – Seattle, Washington
No. 8 – Charlotte, North Carolina
No. 9 – Dallas, Texas
No. 10 – Minneapolis, Minnesota