That includes a full kitchen, two bedrooms, two bathrooms and a front porch, but no engines.

Whether these products are even allowed to float on city waters, however, remains in question. A city law on the books since 1984 is designed to prevent the proliferation of the behemoth houseboats from taking up Annapolis waterfront.

As a result, the houseboats marketed by Bay Yacht Agency have been slapped with warnings from the city's harbor master in recent months.

The issue has sparked a controversy in the state capital: whether these structures are more like permanent houses sitting on a barge or simply another boat floating on city waters.

This same discussion came up in Virginia when houseboats began appearing in the northern neck of the state, said Virginia Boating Law Administrator Charlie Sledd. Virginia didn't have any laws stating that houseboats should be treated differently than any other watercraft, he said. So state officials determined that houseboats can be registered like any other boat - even if they don't have motors, Mr. Sledd said.

"It's marketed as a boat, it's sold as a boat, well, if it's a boat it's a boat," he said.

The controversy has manifested itself at a time when interest in living aboard a boat has increased as the area's high-cost waterfront-home market continues to command high prices in a deflating economy.

Charlie Buckley, a Realtor with Long & Foster who calls himself "Mr. Waterfront," said the cheapest waterfront home you'll find in Annapolis right now is a one-bedroom home listed for $275,000.

In Anne Arundel County, between $300,000 and $500,000 is probably the lowest amount you can spend and "still call it waterfront," he said.

People live on boats for many reasons. Local yacht brokers said houseboats and other watercraft can serve as temporary housing after a job move or divorce, auxiliary guest rooms, an investment and a way to ditch monthly apartment rents.

Bay Yacht Agency, which marketed its houseboats at the Bay Bridge Boat Show in April, already has identified more than 400 slips in marinas around Annapolis and the Eastern Shore that would be interested in allowing houseboats, said company president Eric Smith, who is considering moving his $12 million-a-year boat dealer business out of the city.

It's the law

The Annapolis law was written in 1984 after a large houseboat appeared at the Horn Point Harbor Marina, said Frank Biba, chief of environmental programs for the city Department of Neighborhood and Environmental Programs. It was used to force out a boat called Sardinia in the late 1980s that "lit up like a Christmas tree," he said.

Here's how it works: It defines a "house barge" as a vessel, boat, craft or structure designed to float and primarily be used for "occupancy as a residential, business or social club." It also says housebarges larger than 20 feet wide, 46 feet long or 14 high from the water line can't be docked or moored for more than two days.

The law also says housebarges are designed to be permanent and not regularly be driven around.

Unoccupied housebarges and or those used for sales display cannot be docked for more than one month.

Housebarges that meet the acceptable dimensions can only be secured to a waterfront facility if they are docked at a commercial, community or public marina where 20 or more slips exist for the dockage of vessels. The dockage of housebarges also can't take up more than 5 percent of a facility's slips.

Mr. Smith said city officials used these regulations to classify boats he had on display as housebarges and issued the warnings as a result, though he said he's being unfairly targeted.

He said he suspects his houseboats have raised eyebrows because the structures look so much like a house with their pitched roofs.

"It looks different, and all the sudden everyone is up in arms," he said.

Mr. Smith said his products shouldn't be classified as housebarges - they are more of a boat. He also said he wants to be able to regularly display them on city waters.

Both of his houseboats can be moved by regular boat motors, he said. For example, Bay Yacht's 42-foot Aqua Lodge houseboat falls within the city's length requirements and can be powered by a single 60-horsepower engine and reach speeds up to 15 knots, enough to pull a wakeboarder, he said.

The company's 55-foot Harbor Home, now stored at Bert Jabin's Yacht Yard in Eastport, can be powered by twin 60-horsepower engines and speed up to about 11 knots, he said.

The Harbor Home boat costs up to $320,000 depending on luxury features including flat-screen TVs and "green" incinerating toilets.

"We're not trying to fill up the whole harbor with these things," Mr. Smith said. "In other areas, they've had these types of discussions and in the end been allowed."

Mr. Smith said he only plans to sell the boats with engines to Annapolis customers, but would allow clients outside the city to buy them without engines. He said he's not marketing these boats to people who live aboard boats "per se," but rather to vacationing boaters who take them out on weekends for fishing and swimming.

The company also rented out the smaller house boat model to Michael and Margaret Burton of Narberth, Pa., who vacationed on the structure in an Eastport marina for one week, enjoying postcard views of downtown and Naval Academy.

The city's harbor master declined to comment for this story.

Mayor Ellen O. Moyer said she's working to organize a meeting with city officials and Bay Yacht officials to talk about the matter.

"That seems to me to be the most prudent way to solve problems," she said. "There are lots of dimensions to this controversy." Anne Arundel does not have specific restrictions on houseboats, said county Planning and Zoning Officer Larry Tom, adding that houseboats would probably be treated like any other watercraft under the county zoning code.

Life aboard

Living aboard is nothing new in Annapolis, where boaters who meet the city's size requirements rent slips year-round in marinas and pay thousands of dollars a year for amenities. For example, at Port Annapolis Marina on Back Creek, where roughly 30 boats are used as live-aboards, slips range in price from $3,300 to $15,000 annually and slip tenants have access to a pool, fitness center and free waste pump-outs, said the marina's Dockmaster Jan Kanner.

The living-aboard trend has increased significantly in the past few decades.

Linda Ridihalgh, editor of Living Aboard magazine out of Austin, Texas, said she doesn't keep statistics, but said her magazine started in 1973 as a small newsletter and now has a subscriber base in all 50 states and four continents. Ms. Ridihalgh attributes the increasing interest in large part to technology that allows people to do their jobs from anywhere and baby boomers who are now saying, "What am I going to do with the rest of my life?"

As the live-aboard trend grows, so has the concept of houseboats. Houseboats have been on freshwater lakes for years, and parts of the Pacific Northwest have communities of the boats that can go for more than $1 million, said Jack Dozier of Waterway Guide, an Annapolis publisher of intercoastal cruising guides.

But the concept is newer to East Coast communities and sparked worries that the houseboat market will take up limited amounts of shoreline, increase pollution and "bring in a very transient type of boater that will not really contribute to the community," Mr. Dozier said. "They are looking for a relatively inexpensive way to be on the water."

Ed Reid, a retired live-aboard docked at Weems Creek, said the $148,000 boat he bought in 2003 affords him all the comforts of home without the high price. Still, he said living aboard means lowering your standards of living a bit. He also has to deal with boat maintenance, the high cost of fuel and cold winters.

"Even though your boat is 75 (degrees) your feet are cold all the time," said Mr. Reid, who cruises south in the wintertime.

When it comes to bathrooms, Mr. Reid said a city pump-out boat circles around the bay a few times each week.

"He pumps you out for five bucks," he said.