One of the great unanswered questions facing the housing market is whether Americans will make the same housing choices in the future as generations before them made.

Members of Generation Y, generally those age 18 to 34, so far prefer urban living and value walkability and access to public transit. But will they still find those factors important as they get older and have children?

In its latest survey, the Urban Land Institute attempted to determine what community features are important to various generations of Americans. The institute generally advocates urban living and mixed-use environment, and one of the goals of the survey was to find out which groups also favor those characteristics in a place to live.

Drew Barrymore  has put her home in Montecito, Calif., up for sale for $7.5 million.

The estate, on two secluded acres in the affluent town 10 minutes from Santa Barbara, was the site of her June 2012 wedding to Will Kopelman, an art consultant. The couple have an 8-month-old daughter, Olive.

Barrymore bought the house in June 2010 for $5.705 million, apparently as a weekend getaway. Her permanent residence is in the Hollywood Hills.

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Zsa Zsa Gabor’s home, which has been on and off the market for more than two years, has finally been sold, in a deal that will allow the ailing, 96-year-old actress to remain in the house for three more years.

Her 8,878-square-foot home in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Bel-Air recently made an appearance in the film "Argo," as her husband, Frederic Prinz von Anhalt, sought to earn enough money to pay off a loan and pay the star’s medical bills. The house also makes an appearance in the upcoming Liberace biopic, "Behind the Candelabra," on HBO.

Sales of existing homes in April were up 9.7% over April 2012, but they would likely be higher if all the people who wanted to buy homes could find homes to buy and get mortgages to buy them.

April was the 22nd consecutive month to show a year-over-year increase in sales and the 14th consecutive month to show year-over-year price increases, according to new data from the National Association of Realtors.

The number of homes for sale rose 11.9% between March and April, to a 5.2-month supply at the current sales rate, but remained 13.6% below the level a year ago, when there was a 6.6-month supply. Inventory is even tighter in lower price ranges, the NAR noted.

Back in 1955, a devastating tornado swept through the area near where I grew up. A friend’s mother recalled crouching in her garage, trying to shelter her newborn daughter, because the homes in that area had no basements. We moved into a Kansas City, Mo., subdivision constructed shortly after that storm, and every house had a basement.

As a long-time denizen of Tornado Alley (and my childhood home’s basement), I was surprised to hear that few homes in Oklahoma have basements or storm shelters, despite the prevalence of tornadoes.

If your home is damaged by a tornado or other natural disaster, you may run into trouble paying your mortgage.

The government-supported​ entities Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac reminded loan servicers that their policies allow some breaks for victims of natural disasters, such as the Oklahoma tornado. There is no guarantee that servicers will give borrowers the requested breaks, but those who need help should certainly ask.

What exactly constitutes a treehouse?

When does it become so elaborate it constitutes a structure and should be subject to more stringent building codes?

That’s the issue facing a couple in Holmes Beach, Fla., who built a $20,000 multistory structure in a giant Australian pine tree overlooking the Gulf of Mexico.