Workers continue to fill in an area in Mantoloking, New Jersey damaged by Superstorm Sandy. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)After Hurricane Sandy inflicted damage upon thousands of homes along the Northeast Atlantic seaboard, towns in its path have faced a succession of claims adjusters, contractors and construction crews, and finally, speculators seeking bargains on ocean properties that once commanded premium prices.

But problems in storm-impacted housing markets may linger for years. Even homeowners whose homes escaped catastrophic damage face prolonged uncertainty about what it will cost them to raise their foundations to meet more stringent, federally-established, flood-insurance requirements. Potential homebuyers must factor expensive future renovations into their purchase price, further complicating market valuations.

"There's activity but not a lot of sales," says Michael Tassillo, owner of The Tassillo Group of RE/MAX Real Estate in Brick, N.J., one of the coastal areas hit hardest by the storm. "Some of the houses that got severe damage are being bought by local builders just for the land." The

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Homeowners are eligible for a number of tax breaks. Click the photo to see eight common ones.Our friends at Kiplinger recently published a list of almost two dozen of the most overlooked tax deductions, and we discovered that quite a few are home-related.

A couple of them even expired but were revived retroactively by Congress. (Hope you didn't throw away your receipts!)

See if you've overlooked any opportunities to save on your taxes:

State sales taxes, including on major home improvements. If you think the deduction for state sales taxes expired in 2011, you're right. But a bill approved this past Jan. 1 restored it, and the restoration is retroactive.

Even if you use the standardized IRS Sales Tax Deduction Calculator to determine whether and how much state sales tax to deduct, you can also add specified big-ticket purchases, including major home improvements. Just be sure to check out the IRS restrictions on those specified items first.

Refinancing points -- including previous refi points when you re-refinance. This is a little complicated, but here goes. When you

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Welcome to Yahoo! Homes of the Week, powered by Zillow. Each week we spotlight homes for sale at a specific price point. This week we're looking at homes for sale for around $525,000. See even more homes for about $525,000 at Zillow Blog.

Other recent price points we've looked at:

• Homes for $250,000
• Homes for $450,000
• Homes for $200,000

San Francisco, CA
1015 Brazil Ave, San Francisco, CA
For sale: $525,000

Location, location, location. This 894-square-foot home is steps from McLaren Park, shops on Mission, and neighborhood schools. The 1902 home comes with original hardwood floors and a fully renovated kitchen. Built-in storage and a backyard garden also maximize the living space.

Click here, on the photo, or on the address to see this San Francisco home's details as well as many more pictures.

Read More »from Zillow Homes of the Week: Homes for $525,000 across the nation

In the movie The billiard room contains a massive stone fireplace mantel that Hearst brought from San Simeon.Last month, we brought you the nation's most expensive home for sale, Dallas' $135 million (or so the owner hopes!) Crespi-Hicks estate.

Not to be outdone, the Beverly House in Beverly Hills, Calif., is muscling its way into the stratosphere with what is believed to be the most expensive rental home in the nation: a staggering $600,000 a month.

You probably know the house without even realizing it: Remember the scene from "The Godfather" where a Hollywood mogul finds a horse head in his bed? That was filmed at the Beverly House. But the home has an illustrious history beyond that, too: William Randolph Hearst left San Simeon -- the California setting of his never-finished Hearst Castle -- to move into the Beverly House, which paramour Marion Davies bought for him in 1946. And John F. Kennedy honeymooned at the Beverly House with Jackie.

Plus, the Kevin Costner/Whitney Houston vehicle "The Bodyguard" was filmed there.

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A mug that floats. A bag-free vacuum that compresses dirt into "bales" so you don't get a face full of dust when you empty it. A window garden that never needs tending.

The recent International Home and Housewares Show in Chicago featured all sorts of innovative and just plain odd products, any of which could be poised to hit the big time. Can you envision any of these in your home?

Spaces' Ilyce Glink was at the show; read her coverage in our post on the robots that are taking over our world, or at least cleaning it: the window-cleaning Winbot, the barbecue-cleaning Grillbot and the gutter-cleaning Looj.

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The Floating Mug by Tigere Chiriga.
Moisture ring stains on the table? Not anymore. The porcelain Floating Mug incorporates a coaster into its design, catching slight moisture in the little dish where the handle ends. The brainchild of Tigere Chiriga (and his wife's complaints about ring stains), it launched on Kickstarter last year. It's now available for preorder online at FloatingMug.com for $36.

[Note: I deleted a

Read More »from Cool, clever and just odd products featured at the International Home and Housewares Show

The exterior walls (shown held up by iron beams) were not replaced. Click either photo to go to an extensive slideshow with many before-and-after shots.Photos of the renovation give sometimes-intimate glimpses of the White House. Here, workmen dismantle a bathtub in room B-17 on the second floor in February 1950.[Click here or on either photo to go to our slideshow of almost three dozen shots.]

It's a story that just about anyone who's ever lived in an old house can relate to:

Soon after moving in, the new occupant started noticing drafts. And noises, too -- popping and creaking.

Workers were called in to take a look, and sure enough, they found some ... issues. Pretty major ones. The house was 150 years old, after all. It had withstood some major remodels already, including modernization of its electrical, heating and plumbing decades earlier. Not to mention it had endured an early fire that burned it right to its outer walls.

One ceiling was sagging 6 inches. The bricks supporting the staircase -- which were bought secondhand decades earlier -- were disintegrating. The nursery was "an outstanding example of a firetrap," the pros said.

But this was no ordinary repair job, as the New York Times wrote at the time (note: link goes to a PDF). The home was the White House, the occupant President

Read More »from Before-and-after: A gut renovation of the White House

The Grillbot.The Looj gutter cleaner from iRobot.The Winbot. Click the photo to go to a Yahoo! News product test.Robots are taking over. Need proof? Robots were everywhere at the 2013 International Home and Housewares Show, which just ended yesterday in Chicago.

There was the Grillbot, a robot that removes grease and grime from your grill – without supervision. iRobot showcased the Looj, a gutter-cleaning robot you can control with a detachable remote. There were robots on display that clean pools, floors and everything in between.

But perhaps the most innovative was Ecovacs Robotics’ Winbot, the show's Innovation Award winner in its category. The gadget debuted at the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show.

“Winbot is the world’s first window cleaning robot,” said Nick Savadian, executive general manager of Ecovacs Robotics. “Winbot does windows, any size and thickness, and I’m very pleased to say it makes windows sparking clean.”

Watching the Winbot in action was one of the highlights of this year’s International Home and Housewares Show. Simply add the cleaning pad to the bottom of the robot, mist

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[This is a guest post by Erika Riggs, adapted for Spaces from her Zillow Blog post.]

Statement walls are in. But they're no longer limited to just painting one wall a bold color: Statement walls are now going bigger and bolder with texture, patterned wallpaper or collections of art.

(You can see more images of statement walls on the new Zillow Digs.)

While statement walls have been around for quite a while, said designer Kerrie Kelly of Kerrie Kelly Design Lab in Northern California, “we have found more elements to support it and have gotten more creative in how to achieve it.”

A soft tangerine wall warms up this master bedroom. Design by Eric Ross Interiors.

Make the Statement

You can create a statement wall around anything. Kelly advises finding a focal point beyond your TV -- maybe the wall behind your bed in the master bedroom, as shown above in a room designed by Eric Ross Interiors, or the wall that the stove sits against in the kitchen.

A statement wall, whether it’s painted or wallpapered, is a great way to draw attention to something in your home,

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