It's real, they actually painted their small home the colors of the flag. If I remember correctly this was done shortly after the 911 attacks and Google maps still shows it looking this way today.
There are several steps involved but it starts with the version of photoshop I use has a infrared black and white conversion style (i'll bet yours does too) that I tweak the color channels and then add some guassian blur here and there with a few blending mode changes and of course always, always a layer mask or 3 are used. There is a faux HDR for left side, the sponge tool and a little dodge and burn here and there. All that work and it's still a weak and dull entry but I had fun playing for the 10 minutes it took. Paul
Oh yea, if you count the stars, one state is missing.