Car-Free Alaska Inlet Town, No Property Tax, Hot Springs — $85,000

There are no roads into Tenakee Springs. You get there by ferry or seaplane, and that fact alone tells you what kind of place this is. If that sounds like a selling point to you, keep reading. If it sounds like a problem, save yourself the trip.

The house is a 2001 build, three bedrooms, one bath, 1,200 square feet. The views look out over Tenakee Inlet, which means you're looking at water and mountains from the window. The agent copy says the eagles do the decorating, which is the kind of line that gets written when someone runs out of things to say about the interior. The layout is described as efficient, which usually means compact. At 1,200 square feet for three bedrooms and one bath, that tracks.

What the listing does have going for it beyond the views is genuinely unusual. Tenakee Springs has a public hot springs bathhouse that the town has kept running for a long time. That's a real thing. You walk down the boardwalk and you soak in geothermal water. There are no cars in this town, full stop. No roads in or out means no traffic, no drive-throughs, no one cutting through your neighborhood. The boardwalk is how you get around.

The town sits on Chichagof Island in Southeast Alaska. Access is through the Alaska Marine Highway system or by floatplane. That means provisioning takes planning, medical emergencies take planning, everything takes a little more planning. That's the trade.

The tax picture is simple: Tenakee Springs has no property tax. On an $85,000 purchase, that adds up over time in a way that's worth thinking about.

This is a small house in a very small, very remote community with a specific way of life. The people who move to places like this tend to know exactly why they want to. If you've been imagining a version of your life that looks like Southeast Alaska and a boardwalk and a hot springs down the street, this is a concrete version of that idea at a concrete price.