A local DNS server...? Nope, I've never bothered with this for home use. It has always seemed overkill to me. Even when on dial-up, the advantage of using your ISP's DNS (or any other DNS) seems outweighed by the work involved in configuring and maintaining your DNS.
I remember looking into this with the Sys Admin for the 1st company I worked for... but got made redundant before any decision was made (maybe that's why I got made redundant
).