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Tiny Houseboat in Seattle


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This is a tiny houseboat in Seattle. It’s painted in teal, offers about 432-sq.-ft. inside, and is listed for $324,900 according to Realtor.com.

It’s a one-bedroom, one-bathroom floating cottage with water views. Take a look for yourself and let us know what you think in the comments.

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432-sq.-ft. Tiny Houseboat in Seattle On The Market

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Images via Realtor.com

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Images via Realtor.com

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Images via Realtor.com

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Images via Realtor.com

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Images via Realtor.com

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Images via Realtor.com

Highlights

Learn more

Realtor.com Listing | A Wee Floater: Tiny Houseboat in Seattle

Our big thanks to Peter Christiansen for sharing!🙏

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Alex

Alex is a contributor and editor for TinyHouseTalk.com and the always free Tiny House Newsletter. He has a passion for exploring and sharing tiny homes (from yurts and RVs to tiny cabins and cottages) and inspiring simple living stories. We invite you to send in your story and tiny home photos too so we can re-share and inspire others towards a simple life too. Thank you!
{ 24 comments… add one }
  • Jerry Dycus
    December 17, 2019, 2:11 pm

    Nice boat but way over priced. Boat living done right is some of the lowest cost you can do especially living in cities where dock rent is a fraction of an apartment.
    And boats are dirt cheap now as fiberglass isn’t rotting away so much I was just given by a marina a 26′ sailboat that needs a lot of work but good bo9nes and mostly cleaning and painting.
    You can for $3k buy a sailboat in great shape ready to sail the islands. I assume houseboats, etc follow the same pattern. Just watch Craigslist for a while you’ll see what I mean.
    As for building your own like this but smaller, look up shanty boats with many free easy plans to build ones.

    • Eric
      December 17, 2019, 4:05 pm

      It’s Seattle. Everything is overpriced in Seattle. Just like Vancouver. And… in case you hadn’t noticed, it’s a houseboat not a sail boat. A subtle but very important difference in regards to price.

      • Jerry Dycus
        December 17, 2019, 5:50 pm

        There are other towns around the sound, etc that are not so expensive to buy boats or truck one in or have one built.
        I was just giving details on a great TH deal and how to buy any boat cheap. And you have a problem with that? Sad.

        • Eric
          December 17, 2019, 6:14 pm

          You commented on the cost… I commented on its location having “the” bearing on the cost.

          Its like anywhere… location will have a major effect on its pricing. Seattle expensive. Other places not so much. That was the point I was trying to make. Obviously that isn’t how you took it. And for that I’m sorry it didn’t come across as such. Have a happy Christmas.

    • lsb
      December 18, 2019, 4:40 am

      I live near Seattle, this house boat in ON Lake Union, ever price a condo on the waterfront of Lake Union? BTW this is not to far (one Lake Over) from where Bill Gates (Richest person in the U.S.) lives, that might tell you something about the area. It’s Expensive, sure you can move up or down the sound, but compare apples to apples, not apples to oranges.

    • Taylor L Parton
      December 18, 2019, 5:49 pm

      I couldnt AGREE MORE,.. Tiny Houses n House Cabins/ Boats are ridiculously over priced… Let the owners sit on them a while,.. Do Not PAY THESE OVERPRICED Deals,.. The World is getting STUPID/GREEDY

      • James D.
        December 21, 2019, 1:38 am

        @Taylor L Parton – No, people just need to understand what they’re actually paying for and understand how their choices effect the costs instead of assuming everything costs the same when it doesn’t…

        Everything just has trade offs and that includes the effect on costs… Location, material choices, lifestyle, engineering, durability, longevity, maintenance, architecture, level of guaranteed comfort, energy efficiency, convenience, etc. are all examples of things that will effect the costs.

        For example, part of the cost could be due to a mooring lease, which the new owner would have to pay to have the lease transferred to them… Since, this is being treated as a property and not just the sale of the house boat… Among multiple other factors that could be effecting the costs, like the value of the location and not just the value of the house boat…

        This is one of the reasons why you should always compare to other properties/products in the same area. It may cost something very different somewhere else but if you want to live there then it’s the local costs you’ll have to deal with and what it’ll take to get what you want there…

        Costs just don’t exist in a vacuum where nothing else can ever effect them. So you’re choices matter, just not always in ways you may have anticipated or accounted for or by as much…

  • Eric Williams
    December 17, 2019, 3:49 pm

    It’s a really cool boat, but what about the rest of us who are not rich?

    • Suzy Que
      December 17, 2019, 4:50 pm

      What about you? You can either afford it or you can’t. Not sure what you are asking.

  • Angela
    December 17, 2019, 8:05 pm

    Just a tad bit overpriced…I take that back…not just a tad bit, but freaking exorbitant. It’s really nice, but nowhere near deserving of that amount of money.
    Suzy Que, Eric Williams was simply asking if there were, perhaps, houseboats out there available to those of us inhabiting the real world. I guess that would be a bit hard for you to understand.

    • James D.
      December 17, 2019, 11:57 pm

      Real world not everything is going to be in the price range that may be preferred and that means some options won’t be for everyone, just the way it is but there may be other alternatives.

      House boats are generally going to cost a lot more than a conventional house but like Jerry suggested, options like converting a boat that is composed of durable but lower cost materials could be a much more easily achievable goal… Though, cost of location should also be factored as things like dock rental fees, etc. vary and not everyplace will let you remain all year round as well as whether it will be something you would actually want to stay in one location with or transport periodically to nicer climate zones…

    • lsb
      December 18, 2019, 4:45 am

      It’s location, move away from Seattle and it is far less expensive. Of West Coast Cities Seattle is right up there with San Francisco Bay Area, and Los Angeles, Portland, Oregon is far less expensive and along the Columbia River, but it’s not Seattle.

    • DCRBuchanan
      December 25, 2019, 11:33 am

      A house boat doesn’t get more valuable just because you park it next to Bill Gates house. the same holds true for parking your car next to Bill Gates house.

      • James D.
        December 25, 2019, 7:33 pm

        @DCRBuchanan – Not the same thing when a house boat is either permanently located or at least tied to something that is, such as the dock and making that part of the deal of ownership with a lease or other similar type of contract that’s included in the price…

        Understand, anything tied to land, whether directly or indirectly, in turn ties it to the local economy and anything that is nearby will then effect its value, along with anything that will effect the local economy…

        A car may not have any additional value by just parking it but if that area is restricted and/or ownership of the lot it is parked on is part of the deal then it’s value will be augmented and not the same as the car by itself.

        There are many things that can either change the value of something or change what costs are linked to it… Even something that seems to cost very little may actually cost a lot more, just in different ways. Like you can buy a house very cheaply in Detroit but you’ll likely have to pay fees the previous owner hadn’t, like the water bill, have a high cost to restore and renovate the home as many are in poor condition, and have to deal with high property taxes and other costs. Other areas may have a high cost of entry but low costs from then on…

        Basically, there’s a lot of complexity and range to the market people need to understand if they’re going to deal with multiple different areas… Even things that may seem similar doesn’t mean they are treated the same everywhere and in all situations…

        • DCRBuchanan
          December 25, 2019, 10:05 pm

          You have just proved my point. The value is in the mooring and not necessarily in the boat. The article doesn’t say that mooring ownership is included with the houseboat, nor does it say the right to rent the mooring is included. A boat of any kind is a mobile object not permanently linked to a place, just like a car, and its value is not linked to its location except for the convenience value.

      • James D.
        December 25, 2019, 10:32 pm

        @DCRBuchanan – No, you just made the assumption that the mooring wasn’t included.

        1) It’s a realtor listing, which means it deals with real estate…

        2) Article states it is in a house boat neighborhood, again suggesting real estate…

        3) The actual listing mentions the lease, property tax and other details… Just because the article may miss some details means nothing, only the source material matters!

        4) Something else to realize is house boats is sometimes a misused term that people include floating homes, which can’t be used as a boat and are never really intended to be moved. So they can range from property like a boat to what would be considered the same as any residence and thus not the same as a car… and it’s the legal definition that matters to how it will be treated and what factors will effect its costs…

        5) I never said that was the only thing effecting the costs, there’s multiple ways the location can effect the cost. The mooring/lease is just one of those factors. Like I mentioned the cost of doing any business in the area, whether they need things like an occupancy fee, or other fees the local authorities, home owners, and other effected parties could impose… Or it could have other reasons for a cost difference…

        Again, there’s a lot of complexity and range to the market that needs to be understood… I’ve only touched on some of them to give some idea but there’s lots more…

  • David
    December 18, 2019, 9:43 am

    Very clever use of space. What are the overall dimensions?

  • Angela
    December 18, 2019, 10:16 am

    Yeah, I understand that. I’m just not buying it. We need affordable housing in this country, in every urban area. A major driver of homelessness in this country is the lack of affordable housing. Even though Trump blathers on about the stock market climbing, wages have been stagnant for several years. (Remarkable, since wages usually go up with the market, but, well…Trump.) The average cost of a two-bedroom apt. in the US is around $1,500. Yes, there are some cities lower, some higher. But ALL cities need teachers, wait-staff, low-level management personnel, sanitation workers, etc. These workers, especially if they have kids, cannot afford housing and so they live in tents, vans, or older-model RVs. Some even live in sedan-style cars. Municipalities are outlawing these vehicles. Where are the people whose wages are not keeping pace with housing costs supposed to live? Here in Dallas, encampments are routinely disbanded, forcibly, by the police. There was a move to have homelessness made illegal in the city. Homeless people are not even allowed to sit down anywhere in public. There are no restrooms open to them. They are well aware that factions of Dallas residents would like them to disappear. But they haven’t managed to figure out how to do that. The majority of them are employed. The rest are mentally ill, or too sick, too old or too young to work. Where are they to live? The vast majority of people currently homeless, though, would be solid middle-class if they had housing they could afford. A few, far too few , tiny house communities have opened up for these people and they have proved this by paying rent, not being a drain on the communities they are in or near, and being good citizens in every way. They just need places to live. They just need affordable houses..
    So, only privileged white elitists will be able to afford the nicest homes. Thus it has ever been, and people can accept that. But the larger, non-elitest population must have places to live, too. We know there is a glut of glam tinies on the market. Let’s move on to affordable tinies, for people who can still manage to buy or build one. And let’s think of erecting tiny house villages as an affordable housing for folks who need to get off the streets. It’s way past time.

    • James D.
      December 19, 2019, 12:25 am

      Actually, according to the WSJ and other financial publications wages have been rising. It just going to take awhile to make up for the last decade.

      Regardless, most are just waiting for it to be legalized. There’s multiple people, companies, and other resources all set to start mass producing affordable housing.

      We can all agree it’s way past time but as long as we have to work within the existing system it’ll take time and we have to help other people understand because things like NIMBY’ism are still very prevalent and the root cause of most resistance to making the needed changes.

      It would also help if we can keep government as out of it as possible as bureaucracy inherently makes everything inefficient and raises costs over time. People have forgotten that the power of governing really resides in them…. Though, some still remember, like in Amelia, OH the residents voted and dissolved their local government that had become too corrupt and started over… Sometimes the real solution is for people to just unite and go out and do what needs to be done…

  • JF
    December 18, 2019, 11:13 am

    In a city where a small townhouse will easily cost you $1M, the price is on the low end.

    But if you read the listing, you still have to pay $900 month for moorage and live aboard fees. This is Seattle folks. It’s not Phoenix.

  • Alison
    December 18, 2019, 11:36 pm

    I’m wondering if one reason the price is so high is because it comes with a designated spot in the harbor. You’d still have to pay monthly slip fees, but you’d be able to keep the spot. I’m just guessing. But I bet those spots are in high demand, and having rights to stay in one could be a big deal. Just a guess, based on what I’ve heard from boat owners in another coastal town.

  • lsb
    December 19, 2019, 6:47 pm

    I think one of the biggest problems today is cities have this aversion to trailer parks, there is nothing wrong with them but try and put one on the outskirts of a city and it is nearly impossible. If they are well maintained there is nothing wrong with them, just limit the size of the trailers, whether its a tiny house, modular home, or a manufactured home, it’s still a trailer that you town behind something. The difference is in the manufacturing, frame, cost, but it’s still a trailer.

    • James D.
      December 22, 2019, 2:10 am

      Well, there are differences… A Modular house is a house you put on a foundation and not one that remains mobile, it’s really just a house that is built in a factory instead of site built but it has to follow local building codes the same as any house… A Manufactured house can be either, it has a permanent chassis frame but it can be placed on a foundation and follows federal HUD building code.

      Tiny houses are a bit in their own category… They can be a house on a foundation where local zoning and building codes allow… They can be a mobile home… They can be built to transition between being mobile and being on a foundation or they can be placed on something else and become a house boat, a tree house, etc.

      Only a RV is really a trailer because it can never be anything else… While there’s also other things like container homes to consider that also don’t fall into the trailer category… But, I otherwise agree with the aversion problem and how NIMBY’ism plays a big role in blocking options for people…

      There’s basically more concern about appearances and prejudices against anything being different than what’s practical and effective…

  • ZACHARY E. MOHRMANN
    March 29, 2020, 5:32 pm

    The exterior is very nice and the color is most inviting, but I’m not really crazy about the interior layout.. As for the asking price I think it to be very over inflated.. Unless I’m missing some thing, like location to be a major contribution to this price.. I just don’t know what the costs are in the state of California, but I wish them luck in their sale…

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