Cohousing-L Mailing List: RE: Property Value

[Rob Sandelin (Exchange) (Robsan]

THis is one of those questions which gets asked a lot, and which there seems 
to be no real answer which applies.  Since property value is absolutely a 
local effect, cohousings effect in one area would not apply in another.

I guess a good question is to ask, Why would cohousing have ANY effect on 
anyone elses property value which would be different in any way than any 
other type of multi-family development?  Compared to other types of 
multi-family housing, I can see no reason why cohousing would have a unique 
impact on property values because its Cohousing.  So the only measure would 
be to see if multi-family housing in similiar neighborhods had an impact on 
property values.  

One way to get information would be to investigage condominium projects in 
your area. For purposes of understanding property values,  what you are 
planning on building is  a condo project with slightly more common elements 
than typical. The social aspects of cohousing don't apply even slighly to 
property values in any way.  Eating dinners together does not cause the 
neighbors property values to change.  

If anyone has got concrete information about their neighbors property values 
changing due to cohousing specific reasons, please let us all know.  I would 
be pretty amazed if anyone could show that cohousing had any real impact 
that was different than any other form of multi-family housing. 

Rob Sandelin