Seattle Waterfront Home Buying Guide
by Matt Goyer
Welcome to our 2024 Seattle waterfront home buying guide! Written by Matt Goyer a waterfront real estate agent and the owner and managing broker of the real estate brokerage Urban Living, this guide is based on his 10 years living on a floating home and his years helping many first-time waterfront buyers. We wrote it to give you an overview of what it takes to buy on the water in the Greater Seattle Area. It will also give you a good sense of what it is like to work with us. Do you still have questions? Reach us at hello@lake-life-seattle.com.
Introduction
The Greater Seattle Area has so much waterfront! We have lakes, rivers and the Puget Sound. We also have a wide variety of housing types on or near the water giving buyers options at all price points.
Houseboats: Houseboats on Lake Union are the cheapest way to live on the water in the Greater Seattle Area with prices starting as low as a $100,000. But keep in mind, you’ll be living on something that looks a lot more like a boat than a home :). For more on houseboats, see our Seattle houseboat buying guide.
Floating homes: Floating homes on Lake Union are the most common type of “on-water residence” in the Greater Seattle Area. They look a feel a lot more like a home than a boat and enable you to live in-city, on the water, for typically much less than what you’d pay for a waterfront home. For more on floating homes, see our Seattle floating home buying guide.
Waterfront condos: You can find condos on nearly every body of water in the Greater Seattle Area. Condos offer a typically more affordable to live the waterfront lifestyle in a turnkey fashion. Many have dock space and some even have pools.
Waterfront homes: For those wanting their own slice of waterfront, it is hard to beat a waterfront home.
Lakes with waterfront homes
In the Greater Seattle Area there are several lakes with waterfront homes lining their shores.
Lake Washington
Lake Sammamish
Pine Lake
Beaver Lake