San Francisco is home to some of the priciest and most unique homes in the country, including 20 houseboats that line Mission Creek near Oracle Park.
The houseboats rarely come up for sale. Instead, they are passed down through generations of San Franciscans.
But one happens to be on the market right now.
Tyson Graham bought his houseboat in 2002. At that time, he paid $225,000.
“Boat that I purchased, it was literally a 40-foot slip,” Graham said. “It was a 40-foot boat. It had a deck in the front. A deck in the back, and it was a little jewel box. I don’t think it was 300 square feet.”
The Chicago native put a lot of hard work into this houseboat and turned it into roughly a 1,900-square-foot, three-bedroom and three-bathroom home. Originally, he designed the top floor to be a separate income property.
“One of my design goals was to have 2 units,” he said. “So, I built it with 2 units in mind. The upstairs was an apartment and the downstairs was going to be my living quarters.”
Now, it has transformed into a master suite with a bathroom and a huge walk-in closet.
With these houseboats mostly passed down from generation to generation, only 3 have ever hit the public market. This one is listed for $1.75 million. There are some extra monthly costs such as berthing, but Graham says they are lower than most HOAs in the city. He adds, the only way you know this is a houseboat is when it rocks during high winds.
“Floating home life is very much like life on land,” he said. “There’s not all these extra requirements because of the nature of it being on water.”
Graham says he will miss rowing to the farmers market at the ferry building and this Channel Street community. But now, his home is in Sonoma County, away from city life.
“I’ve been down here for 25 years,” he said. “I’ve never got married. I don’t have any kids to take this thing over for me. So, for me, I retired a couple of years ago and now I’m getting ready to enjoy the next phase of my life.”
