The allure of a floating home can be summarized in a single image.
“We see deer swimming in the bay,” said Larry Clinton, a 45-year veteran of the housing style and the editor of Floating Times. Clinton lives in the Floating Homes Association in Sausalito, California, one of the largest such communities in the U.S.
That unique view of nature is one of the chief appeals of a house on the water. But floating homes are not just a transposed version of living on land. “Buying a floating home is a lifestyle choice,” Clinton said.
When considering entering that life, one has to weigh a sparkling sea view with breakfast against a list of maintenance requirements and singular concerns.
What is a floating home?
As it sounds, a floating home is a house typically constructed like a traditional land-based building but on the water, buoyed by pontoons or some type of raft.
Floating homes rent berths in docked homeowners associations. Unlike houseboats, which are registered vehicles, floating homes are not meant to move. They are rooted to their mooring slips.
While floating homes don’t allow residents to pick up and sail away, they can be larger and more ergonomically designed than a houseboat. One of the largest known floating homes is "Aurora" in Seattle at 4,850 square feet, though they can be the size of tiny homes, around 400 square feet.
What does one cost?
If you thought a floating home might be less expensive than land housing, unfortunately, that ship has sailed in Sausalito, according to Clinton.
“These homes were always priced lower than other homes or even condos,” he said. “That’s no longer the case.”
Prices start in the $400,000 range and soar into the millions. The Aurora was listed for sale in 2024 for $3.6 million. On June 10, listings under the keywords "floating home" on Homes.com ranged from a one-bedroom, one-bath, 605-square-foot property in Portland, Oregon, for $106,900 to a two-bedroom, one-and-a-half-bath, 2,100-square-foot home in Seattle for $4.29 million.
The inventory isn't growing
Prices have risen partially because most floating home communities are built out, with no new berths likely in the near future. In Clinton’s Sausalito community, regulations were passed to prevent more docks and slips from being added.
"That means that the marina operators, our landlords, have monopolies," Clinton said. "If we have a dispute, or can’t afford a berth rent increase, we cannot move our homes."
Which has meant that as the unique homes attract higher-end buyers, there is less inventory to go around.
“There’s a finite supply and an ever-increasing demand,” Clinton said.
One good thing about the market: Home values continue to rise as opposed to depreciating the way they would with a traditional boat.
Floating homes are considered personal property
On top of the price, financing options are limited. “Because we don’t own mud underneath us, it’s not considered real property,” Clinton said. “It’s personal property.”
As such, mortgages are more like modified boat loans, and few institutions offer them. Trailhead Credit Union in Oregon offers one of the only floating home-specific loans.
Most modern buyers come with large down payments or are likely to just pay cash, according to Clinton.
Other fees may apply
Buyers lucky enough to score a floating home will have to pay berthing fees. Clinton said it costs him roughly $1,300 per month.
Most floating homes are also part of a homeowners association or other structured community, which can carry its own fees on top of the moorage.
And even though floating homes aren’t considered real property to a bank, they are real property to municipalities in which they are located. “You still have to pay property taxes,” Clinton said.
By law, floating homes are non-navigable structures, permanently moored in marinas, which means they are subject to local zoning and building codes.
Parking may be in a lot
Clinton’s community offers an open parking lot for residents, which he said is the standard. “They are not covered. They’re not secured,” he said. “We have had vandalism.”
Some communities have private, gated lots.
Storms can get big on the water
The usual order of business is gently rocking from side to side. “We don’t really bob around much except when a water skier goes by,” Clinton said.
Storms can get big on the water, but Clinton said most floating homes are secure enough not to feel them much. The more likely consequence involves having the ramp from the home to the dock fall in the water, something Clinton said has happened to him only twice in all his years.
He also lost a skylight to heavy winds once.
If you live in an area with a heightened hurricane risk, the damage may be more extensive, and you'll need to double-check your mooring lines.
Insurance on these homes is limited
Similar to the limited-financing option, insurance on floating homes is a specialized product. Some carriers include:
- Anchor Marine Underwriters
- Red Shield Insurance Co.
- Caerus Insurance
Clinton gets coverage through California’s state-run insurance of last resort, which he said is common among owners in his community. Those policies offer fire coverage, but he said it is very rare to get flood coverage. That is sometimes offered with supplemental policies.
In case of fire, your connection to land is made of wood
While fire isn’t more likely in a floating home than on land, they are harder to flee in an emergency, given they are typically connected to wooden docks that can also burn.
The Portland Floating Homes fire safety guide recommends finding out if your moorage has a fire safety plan in place and learning how to use equipment such as a river water pump. (It warns that operation is “not intuitive.”)
Residents are also advised to have a detailed description of how to get to their specific properties, as they are not as easy to find individually as an address on land. Making sure the fire department knows which house is yours is crucial.
You may need a backup generator
There are a number of maintenance issues floating homeowners will face.
Sewage, which is typically covered by berthing fees, requires power. “Our wastewater is ground up through something called a macerator or grinder pump,” Clinton said.
From the macerator, it goes to a holding tank that will pump the waste to the treatment plant. But in an extended power outage, “none of that works,” Clinton said.
Many homeowners will buy backup generators or batteries to keep things moving from the house. Clinton said if the situation goes on long enough, the community will have to hire trucks to empty the holding tank.
All the utilities run under the docks to attach to the homes. But while the dock is in a fixed location, the home is always moving, so the connections must be regularly inspected.
And the flotation device that supports the home must also be checked regularly for signs of distress or failure. Sometimes it needs to be bolstered, if you add a particularly heavy piece of furniture to one side of the house, for example.
Wildlife abounds
One of Clinton’s neighbors has a family of raccoons living under her raft. Raccoons can damage wiring or other crucial infrastructure, including the flotation device.
Rats are also common on the docks, as well as pigeons and seagulls, but you also may see deer and otters.
Where can you have a floating home?
The largest established floating home communities in the U.S. are on the West Coast, including:
Portland, Oregon
Portland has the largest collection of homes at around 1,400, mostly spread through the Columbia and Willamette Rivers. The largest cluster is around Hayden Island. Other concentrations include Multnomah Channel, the neighborhood of Bridgeton and the Marine Drive Area.
Seattle
Washington’s biggest city is home to a somewhat intimate community of roughly 500 homes around Lake Union and Portage Bay.
Sausalito, California
Clinton’s neighborhood is home to approximately 400 residences.
On the East Coast, properties are more catch-as-catch-can. Floating homes can be found on the Hudson River in New York, on the Potomac River just outside Washington, D.C., and in marinas in Boston.
Florida also offers the occasional floating home property.
Why own a floating home?
A floating home presents a number of specialized challenges that are not for everyone, but the pluses have kept Clinton in the lifestyle for more than four decades.
Beyond the stunning view and peaceful serenity of living so close to raw nature, Clinton said the neighbors make the life.
Leaving the house by dock instead of driving out of a garage means walking with the same people every day. And living in such close quarters in such uniquely precarious housing means that everyone is prepared for the same problems and ready to help.
“The surprising benefit to me and to everybody is how close-knit the community is,” he said. “Everybody knows all their neighbors and watches out for them.”