Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Young Adult Cohousers

[Rosemary McNaughton (rosemary_mcnaughton]

I'm the youngest homeowner in my cohousing community - I was 26 when  
we chose to pursue joining the community in formation, and 29 when we  
moved into our new home.  I couldn't help but notice there was no one  
else in their 20s around - my supposition is that at least in our area  
there are very few 20-somethings in a position to buy a house in this  
price range and settle down.  My husband is a few years older than I  
am, which meant that he had reached the point in his academic career   
where he was just starting the settled-down, tenure track position  
that would allow us to consider making a long-term choice about where  
to live, and afford us the money to do so while I spent most of my  
time home with our kids on the way.  The demands of young children may  
be another reason people are not able to invest the time and energy to  
join and participate in cohousing.  The 4 hour meetings we had in  
formation were difficult for those with pre-school-aged children in  
particular.  Now that we're living here, it's easier in many ways to  
participate, especially since we chose a site where we can tote the  
baby monitor over to the common house!

Having lived in a co-op house in college and in a cooperative  
apartment complex while in grad school (for a total of 8 adult years  
in intentional community already) I was highly motivated to live in  
community, and ready to jump right in and participate.

I have assumed we'll always have an age gap in the 20s in our  
community - even our renters have been mainly older than that.   
There's also an age gap at the upper end - I don't think we currently  
have anyone over about 75?  Still, I appreciate the range of ages  
among adults and getting social connections with people across the  
various decades that I am sure would have been less likely to happen  
outside of cohousing.

-Rosemary
Rocky Hill Cohousing
Florence, MA