Re: Urban Affordable Cooperative Cohousing Communities.
From: Sharon Villines (sharonsharonvillines.com)
Date: Sun, 8 Feb 2009 08:36:28 -0800 (PST)

On Feb 8, 2009, at 10:48 AM, Racheli Gai wrote:

Sharon wrote (in part):

If one's investment doesn't increase in value, one can never move.
Unless one has other forms of income that do increase.

I think that would only be true in the context of an economy in which housing prices keep rising. If they are stable, or going down, it isn't necessary for one's own house to gain in value.

If the value of your house stays the same or goes down, the other house prices will as well. The important thing for most people is to maintain the value of their investment relative to other investments so they can move if they need/want to. What is happening now is that no one is moving because their house is now worth less than when they bought it. Those who bought at the peak cannot afford the loss.

A $400,00 mortgage on a house one bought for $450,000 but is now worth $350,000 or less, as one young couple has in our community has, is a real problem.

In a normal market with even small increases, one at least stays equal. If they had purchased shares in a coop 5 years ago and there was no growth in the value of their shares, they would not be able to buy another house or shares in another coop unless they bought something smaller. They would not have the increase of 3% a year to invest elsewhere.

It's all well and good to want housing prices to stay low so others with small incomes can move in, but a growing family would not be building enough wealth to grow into other housing.

Sharon.

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