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

[Alexander Robin A (alexande.robi]

One key issue with cohousing costs vs. "ordinary" neighborhoods is that there 
are very few of the former and very many of the latter. If you want to live in 
an ordinary neighborhood, you have an incredible degree of choice. If you want 
to live in cohousing you have very little choice. That fact alone might make 
cohousing somewhat more expensive. It certainly did for us. We moved 1,000 
miles and paid tens of $k because of lack of cohousing in our part of the 
country. 

Also there are intangibles. Here, for instance, folks can leave their bicycles 
outside unlocked. I have never lived in an ordinary neighborhood where that was 
possible. There is no car noise, which is in stark contrast to ordinary streets 
with continuous traffic (one doesn't realize how loud tire noise is until you 
live without it for a bit). There is no air conditioner compressor noise (also 
a very pervasive and annoying noise in most places) because of our geothermal 
cooling system built into all the houses except the common house. There are 
others I could list but these intangibles to cohousing are not trivial and are 
worth paying for. Putting a $ value on them is difficult and loan appraisers 
sometimes have trouble with this. But they are there.


Robin Alexander
Eno Commons Cohousing



From: Jane O'Brien
Sent: Fri 2/4/2005 12:24 PM
To: Cohousing-L
Subject: Re: [C-L]_ Home prices - cohousing vs non-cohousing


> and then figure out the benefit of common amenities

This element to me seems very tricky at best.  Within the last month I
was in negotiations to buy a cohousing unit that was priced high compared to
similar units in the same area (according to my real estate agent). Figuring
out the real value of the amenities is difficult.  Someone advising the
seller told me cohousing had no equal:  "it's like country club living," and
his valuation of the Common House and other amenities seemed astronomical to
me.  Another member of the same community laughed at this description and
said "cohousing is a community based on shared work, and more time is spent
CLEANING the Common House than using it as a country club!" The reality is
probably somewhere inbetween.  I do think establishing the "market value" of
the amenities offered by cohousing is difficult to establish.

Jane O'Brien
janeobrien [at] earthlink.net


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