Buying Land With a Dock

[Scout 30]

We live on the water in Pasco County just north of Tarpon Springs. You can get a small house on a canal with great gulf access starting around 100. Vacant lots are available at about half that & you can have a dock but you cannot live aboard. This is a really great area for boating but you need to limit draft to about 4'.

[Painted Skies]

We purchased a 1-acre waterfront lot in the Northern Neck of Virginia (off the Great Wicomico River) in 2001 and lived aboard our sailboat there for about 7 years before we sailed it to Australia (we built a garage on the property in 2006). The area is still relatively inexpensive for the purchase of waterfront property; in fact, with the recent recession prices are approximately what they were in 2001 when we purchased our land. We were just back for a visit this past summer and found that if you require less than 4 feet at MLW there are still plenty of lots for sale at decent prices. This part of the Chesapeake Bay is located on the western shore, south of the Potomac River and north of the Rappahannock River - if you do a real estate search on Northumberland, Lancaster or Westmoreland Counties, you should find plenty of options between $40 and $70K. There are no restrictions that we are aware of that prohibit a land owner from residing in a vessel at their own dock. Property taxes are very low, particularly in Northumberland County - however, you want to make sure your boat is not there on January 1st of each year, otherwise you may be liable for county-assessed personal property tax on it. While we lived aboard the boat year-around, it does get mighty cold there at times during the winter months and the brackish waters do freeze some years. If you have any questions, we are happy to try and answer them for you.

Cheers, Katherine