My dream along with the boat would be to buy land with a bulkhead and water to accommodate a 5 ft draft then build a small ranch on the property. Total budget for land and home about $300k. Ideally would like to cruise the entire eastern seaboard from Florida to Canada with jaunts to the Bahamas. North during summer and south during cooler weather.
New,
I assume you mean ranch home as in the style of home, not a ranch with horses, etc...... which would be quite expensive.
In the bigger cities, suspect that budget would be a big hard to work with, but outside of cities it gets much more affordable. 5 ft draft could be a challenge, too, but still there's opportunity.
I sold a waterfront home in Madeira Beach a few years ago for $400k, with sailboat depth and 40ft on the water. Nice little place. There's others out there, too, but in the past 2 years they have gone up here in the St. Pete area about 4 to 6% depending.
Now up in Hudson, just north of us, the price drops dramatically. I had a flipper there I picked up for $100 and sold it for $180, nice deep waterfront and suspect that home would be perhaps $250 to $300 today. Small 2br, carport.
Another thought (I don't deal with these) are mobile homes. There are waterfront ones that are in the $300 range and fairly nice water, but small lots... 30 ft in some cases.
So, lots of choices, and there's TONs of them.
For "me" ideal would be a small town, great waterfront and nice places to boat. Doesn't exist in our area or anywhere south of us, with rare exception. There aren't any small towns, and the ones that are, just blend into the next town.
Food for thought.....