Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Is Cohousing Cheap(er)?

[R Philip Dowds (rpdowds]

OK, to refine the question:  Will you and your family live more cheaply in a 
development organized as cohousing, than you would in a similar housing unit in 
the same neighborhood, but not organized as cohousing?  My answer remains: You 
will live different, maybe even better, but don't expect cheaper.

RPD

I'll make one significant concession:  AAA reports the averaged annual cost of 
owning and operating a passenger vehicle is now in the $9K to  $11K range.  If 
cohousing maintains a shared vehicle or two, and access to that vehicle allows 
your family to drop from 3 cars to 2, or 2 cars to 1 -- or even 1 car to none 
-- now you're saving interesting money.  What I've seen so far in cohousing is 
that the legal and political hurdles are often high for a communally owned car 
-- but coho-ers are more likely than regular folk to find ways of privately 
sharing a vehicle and its costs among two or three households.

But you still can't share your healthcare or your daughter's four years at 
college.

Sent from my iPad

On Dec 31, 2012, at 11:46 AM, oz <oz [at] ozragland.com> wrote:

> 
> First, an appeal to authority: I co-authored a few articles on
> affordability for the next issue of Communities magazine (alas, only one
> was accepted). I've also visited about 30 communities.
> 
> ...