RE:House Pricing in House Selection Process
From: Judy (BAXTER%EPIHUBVX.CIS.UMN.EDU)
Date: Mon, 22 Aug 94 13:08 CDT
Maria and Ray Gasser from Ithaca wrote:

>Each model has 
>been assigned a range of prices by our architects based on 
>"desirability".  Desirability was based on how many households selected
>a specific house site.  
 
and David Hungerford wrote: 
=If you vary the prices on the same model of housebased on location (rather  
=than private amenities such as carpet/cabinet upgrades etc.) you are, in  
 =essence, awarding the "more desirable" sites to those who make (or have) 
=more money.  While this way of doing things is part of our culture,  .....
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At Monterey, we are still in the process of pricing new homes, but we have
decided  that some sort of "location adjustment" will be part of it.  And a big
part of the argument for this is that the "more desirable" locations (and,
because of the site, every house is different, more or less) will sell for
more.  Reality says that we won't all stay forever - and we have no limited
equity provision.  So, without an adjustment, are we saying, these are all
equally valuable, but some people get to sell theirs for more? So, it seems
fair to me to have some acknowledgement of the differences in sites - not
necessarily a lot - I can't remember, but the earlier proposal was something
like 5% (of what? i'm not sure).

I think it is always hard to decide where we ignore the outside values/norms,
and where we follow them.  We are idealists, but to varying degrees, in my
experience.  

Judy Baxter, Monterey Cohousing Community, (MoCoCo)
Twin Cities Area, Minneapolis/St.Paul Minnesota
e-mail: baxter [at] epivax.epi.umn.edu

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