Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Home prices - cohousing vs non-cohousing

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

On Feb 2, 2005, at 10:13 AM, Michael Barrett wrote:

> I'm surprised to find very little in the archives on the relative 
> prices of cohousing and conventional homes. Seems like this data 
> should be readily compilable from public records in any given area.

The only number I've heard comes from the Cohousing Company -- initial 
pricing in cohousing can be 10% more than surrounding homes but I've 
heard that the Cohousing Company does keep track of resale figures. I 
haven't seen them published anywhere.

Homes are priced on number of rooms, not square footage. Our units are 
selling at the same price as surrounding units but are smaller. The 
commonhouse balances out the difference.

Prices in DC have shot up significantly in the last few years and our 
units are selling and assessing at approximately twice what we paid for 
them in 2000. In our neighborhood, one reason for this (in my opinion) 
is that we built here. We were the first new construction in a very 
long time. Now there are two medium sized apartment and townhouse 
buildings within a block -- one rentals, one condos.

Rob's community apparently has other problems, like the homes being 
customized so that they are much more expensive (in the owner's view) 
than in surrounding neighborhoods. Location, location, location is 
still the determining factor in real estate.

Sharon
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Sharon Villines, Editor and Publisher
Building Community: A Newsletter on Coops, Condos, Cohousing, and Other 
New Neighborhoods
http://www.buildingcommunitynews.org