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

[Raines Cohen (rc2-coho-L]

On 2/2/05 7:13 AM, Michael Barrett <mbarrett [at] toast.net> wrote:

>I'm surprised to find very little in the archives on the relative prices 
>of cohousing and conventional homes.

The trick is, most communities don't compile this data (or even have a 
log of resales) and once somebody has sold it's harder to track 'em down 
to get the final data.

>Seems like this data should be 
>readily compilable from public records in any given area. 

So are you volunteering to go compile it? I recently found a municipal 
website that had info from initial sales of all properties in one 
communitiy.

We'd love to track this data for publishing and updating on our website 
at http://www.cohousing.org/ and in Cohousing magazine (it would help new 
communities get financing to have more than anecdotal data) and can even 
fit it in to our existing databases of communities/units/households in 
cohousing, but it takes work to (a) determine the addresses/parcel #'s 
for all units in cohousing (we have the latter for perhaps 50% of units, 
closer to 100% in some recent communities built by our partners), and (b) 
use that to do lookups.

> We are the only 
>cohousing community in our area (in relatively rural Maryland) and have 
>virtually no "comparable" data.

Your local real estate market (you didn't mention the name of your 
community) almost certainly has a way of doing comparisons -- by finding 
some other town with similar schools, commute distances, climate, etc. 
Ask any agent, and then figure out the benefit of common amenities.

>Is there any data or experience available?  Does cohousing command a 
>premium, or carry a burden (from limited demand)? Rob Sandelin indicates 
>the latter. 

In my experience, cohousing sells at or above local market conditions for 
comparable units, and tracks accordingly.

However, the final-sale-price numbers don't tell the whole story, as I 
know of several sellers (at Swan's in Oakland and Doyle Street in 
Emeryville) who have chosen to sell to somebody at a lower price rather 
than look for the highest bidder, in order to get someone into a 
community who they think would be a good match for the community.

Also, some communities like Berkeley Cohousing have affordability 
provisions that cap sale prices (in our case, all units are limited in 
their price appreciation based on capital gains plus area median income 
appreciation, as a result of a deal with the city to waive 
condo-conversion fees), so current prices are less than 50% of what a 
house nextdoor would cost, as a result of the Bay Area's continuing boom 
market). Any study would have to take this into account.

If you look at the Cohousing Magazine classifieds you can get more data 
on current asking prices in cohousing, and use for comparison by city:

http://www.cohousing.org/magazine/classified.html

However, as you know, asking prices can be higher or lower than final 
sale prices.

Raines

Raines Cohen <my initials,2,dash,coho,dash,L at my first name .com>

  Secretary, Berkeley [CA] Cohousing
Where a sharing circle about our impacts on each other revealed a lot 
from our first decade here.

  Member, Swan's Market Coho [Oakland, CA] <http://www.swansway.com/>
Where a grandkid has moved out, cutting the young-kid population in half.

  Supporter, East Bay Cohousing <http://www.ebcoho.org/>
Next meeting, Feb. 27 with Rick Mockler, Coho/US president and WHDC 
developer.

  Boardmember, Coho/US <http://www.cohousing.org/>
Learn about Temescal Creek Cohousing, a retrofit community, in the latest 
Cohousing magazine, http://www.cohousing.org/magazine/