Cohousing-L Mailing List: affordable housing - rentals

[don i arkin (shardon5]

Hi,  At Sonora Cohousing we have 2 units planned as long-term rentals by
their owners out of 36 units, about 5.5%.  I am curious as to why people
feel that rentals are the solution for low-income families.  It is my
experience that monthly housing costs for comparable housing is higher
for renters than for owners.  True, low-income families face significant
barriers to owning, principally down-payments and problems qualifying for
mortgages, but once they are in they are often better off.  (It is true
that in some depressed housing markets it is possible to rent for less
than monthly mortgage payments for the same place, but this is generally
a temporary phenomenon.)
        Therefore it seems to me that the better solution is to come up
with a method for assisting below the line buyers get a mortgage.  For
example,  once I sold a house to someone who couldn't come up with a
down-payment by lending him the down-payment.  He then paid me back over
time - he had the income, he just didn't have the habits necessary to put
money aside.
        If individuals or a community are willing to assume some risks
people who can't qualify for mortgages on their own can be helped through
methods like the one above (not always acceptable to lenders) or by
cosigners on mortgages.  Of course, they still need to be able to make
the payments which returns to the question of whether cohousing is often
too high end.
        Don Arkin
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