Cohousing-L Mailing List: Moving, affordability, outreach

[johnrichmond50 (johnrichmond50]

I am exactly where Martha js regarding the affordability of cohousing units. I 
first learned about a housing 10 years ago and immediately dismissed it because 
I begin looking at the prices of units and I realized that I would probably 
never be able to afford them. I was looking at units costing $300,000 and above 
in the eastern US. It was only with a better paying job, ten years of saving 
and a group that held out the promise of lower cohousing costs that I felt like 
I could come back to the idea.

As for parts of the country to move to, I personally wouldn't put much stock 
into whether a state is red or blue. These things change over time; Latino 
immigration into the southeast might make it a left-leaning bastion, or not. It 
is true that the South has more of a pathology around race and class than most 
other places. Every place has its moments. 

Richmond VA would surprise you; we are fairly tolerant,  very creative, with 
lots of culture for everyone, and largely bikeable within 4-7 miles from the 
downtown area. Asheville and Charlottesville are two other examples of 
extraordinarily progressive islands in so-called purple states. I will admit to 
having given Vermont a long look because they're on track to have single-payer 
universal health care 2017, the cost of living is low, and they're close to 
Canada. In the end, demographic changes will overwhelm our efforts at cultural 
change and we may or may not like the direction of the overwhelming.

On a related note, how does one attract people to a forming community? We're 
getting good people with our outreach efforts,  but not enough of them.

John Richmond 
Richmond VA Cohousing (forming)


Sent from my Galaxy S®III

-------- Original message --------
From: cohousing-l-request [at] cohousing.org 
Date: 08/07/2013  6:16 AM  (GMT-05:00) 
To: cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org 
Subject: Cohousing-L Digest, Vol 115, Issue 5 
 

Message: 1
Date: Mon, 5 Aug 2013 11:55:17 -0700 (PDT)
From: MJWB <mjwyogini [at] yahoo.com>
Subject: [C-L]_ Looking to Rent, Rent to buy,   or Owner Financing to
Make a Dream come true!
To: "cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org" <cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org>
Message-ID:
<1375728917.5762.YahooMailNeo [at] web160405.mail.bf1.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1

Hello Everyone!

????? WE are Marsha and Jens Beesen. I decided to update my post with some 
other details:

We really have to become flexible as to WHERE we will consider. I guess you 
could say
everywhere except Arizona, the southeast, or the cold northern states...

The most important thing is the Community. Most Cohousing communities are full 
of 

people who want to be there, some of whom have made it happen. There is no 
perfect 

place but I do believe that Cohousing people are trying to do it right. It's 
the cost that
stops us....as always.....

I don't think we could consider a price much above $200,000. Some of the prices
of houses in Cohousing astound me. Only the upper classes can afford this. I 
believe
as always, that Cohousing needs to be for everyone, and accessible to everyone. 
This is
not the case right now. I know that Denmark has found a way to integrate 
rentals along 

with homeowners, and I don't see why it can't be done here in the U.S.

?? One thing is, why are so many the houses so big? This is not sustainable, in 
my humble
opinion. We would be happy with an 800 sq. ft. house, or even less. I really 
believe that
Cohousing needs to be taking up less space, smaller houses would help, and 
joined together
would help too. Or maybe building UP!

?? Anyway, we are good people, we have a lot to offer in a Cohousing community, 
and we 

won't be able to rest until we are part of this dream we both have......

?? Thank you and many blessings to all!

Marsha ....