Millennial Buys $255,000 Houseboat, Says Life on the Water Is Serene

• Kate Fincham, 35, bought a houseboat in Toronto for $255,000 during the pandemic.
• She says the lifestyle has helped her live clutter-free and form close bonds with her neighbors.
• “It’s a very serene and calm way of life compared to downtown,” she told BI.

After two and a half years of sharing a home with three housemates in downtown Toronto, Kate Fincham realized she missed living on the water.

Her love for the lifestyle runs deep: She spent 10 months sailing on a tall ship during high school and another three years working on yachts after university.

It was pure chance that she stumbled onto a listing for three houseboats for sale in Bluffers Park Marina on Lake Ontario.

“And I had no idea — I’d never heard that we had houseboats or floating homes in Toronto. It was all completely new to me,” Fincham, 35, told BI.

She ended up viewing only one of the three houseboats. She liked the home, but wasn’t quite ready to take the plunge yet.

“I knew nothing about houseboats. I didn’t know anything about this specific houseboat or the community or what I would do,” Fincham, a marketing content specialist, said.

But on her second viewing about a month later, Fincham finally bit the bullet. She heard other parties were interested in the houseboat, which gave her the courage to take the plunge.

“I just thought, ‘No, this is my place.’ I’m positive. I’ve never been so sure about anything in my life,” she said. “It was just a gut feeling rather than a rational one.”

Fincham paid 342,500 Canadian dollars, or about $255,000, for her houseboat and moved on board in November 2020 with her two cats.

“It was like a pandemic thing,” she added.

30 minutes to downtown Toronto