Amid sky-high real estate prices, this New York City home is a steal — but there is a catch: The home floats on water.
Currently docked at Marina 49 in the Rockaway, Queens neighborhood of Arverne, this houseboat offers a relatively unbeatable deal of more than 1,690 square feet spread over two stories, all for the price of $110,000.
(In contrast, Queens’ cheapest landlubbing apartment is a 500-square-foot, $100,000 co-op studio in Far Rockaway with not an inch of outdoor space to its name.)
Built in the 1980s, the wooden “Sundance house barge” has two upper decks, four bedrooms, three bathrooms, plus a rectangular shape and a wood-paneled facade.
The sea-worthy dwelling “has had quite the life,” says its post on Facebook Marketplace, “From housing the crew of a famous sloop to surviving Hurricane Sandy and having editorials and TV shows filmed on it (High Maintenance on HBO), this historic barge has seen it all.”
The listing photos show, and the copy warns, that the water-borne abode does need some fixing up.
“With a little TLC it can be your dream beach home for a fraction of the cost of a ‘land home,’” reads the listing, noting that the bathrooms, railings and “potentially” siding all need updating.
Potential buyers should also be aware that docking fees at the marina are approximately $2,100 a month, plus utilities.
The seller wasn’t available to comment further on the extent of necessary repairs, or how she came to own the vessel. And according to old Instagram page, it’s apparently named Lucille I,I and made headlines as “The hipster houseboat a gang of friends built” in the early 2010s.
According to past coverage, the barge was born on Long Island in 1986, and built as a Goldman Sachs executive’s wine fridge- and Jacuzzi-equipped party boat before taking a humbler turn and becoming the seasonal lodgings for the historic Clearwater’s winter crew.
Then, in 2012, friends and design company founders Gabe Cohen and Jolie Signorile bought the badly beaten-up watercraft, had it tugged down the Hudson to Rockaway from upstate, gutted it and did a tasteful renovation.
Now, it’s ready for a new captain and its next incarnation.
