Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Affordable CoHousing

[John Gear (catalyst]

(snip)
>He pointed out that 
>virtually all new construction these days in my area  is of houses 
>bigger than 2,500 sq feet and usually with pretty ornate detailing 
>options, such as huge baths, fancy kitchens, formal dining rooms etc. 
>because that is what people are willing to buy and that is what makes 
>profits for builders which is why they build.  From his viewpoint, 
>those are the selling features of a home.  He said people rarely ask 
>about neighbors anymore, although that used to be a common question.
> (more snip)
>He  pointed out that home ownership is, and in his opinion will always 
>be mostly limited to the middle and upper-middle class (snip)

> His opinion was that to accept someone into a 
>development group who did not have the capital means to acquire a 
>mortgage, was a very bad idea.

RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE

Yes, that sounds like a real estate person.  Got laws to keep them from
discriminating against everything except the one kind of discrimination we
aren't allowed to talk about in America--class ($$).

We've got idiots running around hollering about how national health
insurance is socialized medicine and leads to rationing--because their minds
are *so* controlled that they can't see rationing on the basis of ability to
pay as rationing.

Same with housing.  People are aghast if you assert that there's housing
rationing and discrimination built into the system.  There are plenty of
folks who would not dream of discriminating against anyone's
race/color/creed etc. but who are convinced that it's perfectly justifiable
that someone with $70,000 income get a tax subsidy for their mortgage
payment on their $250,000 home while someone making $20,000 pays the full
share because they don't have mortgage interest to deduct.  God *BLESS* America!

WHY AFFORDABILITY HAS NOTHING WHATSOEVER TO DO WITH COHOUSING

But from what I can tell on this list (and in the presentations we've
attended), the reason cohousing isn't cheaper is that it's not less housing
and you're competing with current other demand, which is for the behemoths
Rob's real estate guy discussed.
Building 20 1500 foot detached homes and a 10,000 foot commons isn't any
cheaper than building 20 2000 foot homes--and may well be costlier.

The only way to get cheaper cohousing (new construction) is to buy less land
or build cheaper structures, either by somehow lowering the per foot cost to
build or building less, *and* by controlling the out-home expenses (common
areas).  Long-term thinking would include energy savings as well (lowering
the total cost of ownership) but only a few banks are willing to enter that
into the affordability ratio calculations.

The other part goes to the issue of where cohousing goes--like the folks
from Vienna, Virginia the other day.  The last farm in an area is *not*
cheap land economically (leaving aside entirely the social issues of best use).

THE BOTTOM LINE

As Rob so often says, you don't have to do construction to do cohousing--and
I'm starting to wonder if cohousing isn't more likely to happen if you don't.  

Actually, I'm wondering if the construction process just works like an
elaborate filter to make sure that socioeconomic diversity gets combed out
and that the remaining folks are only as diverse as well off folks tend to
be.  From the outside it would seem a lot easier to follow the path of the
Sabin neighborhood in Portland (who picked an area and started in by buying
houses around them and letting the neighbors know they were interested in
buying more).

Open to your feedback.
John Gear (catalyst [at] pacifier.com)

"If you assume that there's no hope, you guarantee that there will be no
hope.  If you assume that there is an instinct for freedom, there are
opportunities to change things--there's a chance you may contribute to
making a better world.  That's your choice."                   -- Noam Chomsky