Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: when all our men are dead and gone

[Larry Miller (larry.miller]

"it's just that the field seems for some reason to attract more women, and in 
the case of our
group, more people between 50 and 70. "

Oak Creek Commons has a similar demographic. Out of 35 occupied homes, we have 
18 single women,
3 single men, and 14 couples. Over half the adults are over 60.

In our case and, I suspect, in many cohousing communities, this is likely to be 
common for some
basic reasons. We are located in a small town (25,000) in a primarily 
agricultural area. Jobs,
especially high paying ones, are hard to come by. Nevertheless, real estate is 
relatively
expensive here. Most of our community moved here from the LA or San Francisco 
Bay areas, where
pay was higher, jobs more plentiful, and real estate even more expensive. Thus, 
our community
was most appealing to those who had some money or previously owned a home, and 
did not need to
find local employment. As a result, our population has a high percentage of 
retirees and those
whose jobs can be done from the home, which also seems to be predominately 
older folks.

We did attempt to encourage a particular demographic, namely families with 
children, when homes
came up for resale. The effort has not been successful, as other factors, at 
least in our area,
drive the real estate market more than what we can do to influence it.

Larry Miller
Oak Creek Commons