Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: [C-L] Common house design, rooms, and room sizes?

[R Philip Dowds (rpdowds]

Prudent frugality and income diversity are worthy goals sought and obtained by 
many cohos; if that’s your path, you are hardly alone.

But be realistic about money as well.  A big divide in disposable income, with 
a few households facing real difficulty in paying their proportionate share, 
can become a chronic problem.  Better to face it squarely now, rather than be 
surprised about it when you move in.  And, there is no reason to expect that 
cohousing will be “cheap”.  Most of your costs are development and property 
related, and they will be about the same as for the “for profit” complex or 
neighborhood across the way.  If you have households that can’t afford much 
housing in the conventional market, they probably can’t afford much cohousing 
either.

Up to you, of course, to decide how “much” is “too much”.

RPD

> On Feb 8, 2015, at 8:25 AM, Douglas McCarroll <list.cohousing-l.001 [at] 
> brightworks.com> wrote:
> 
> Several of you have suggested that we not skimp, and this sounds like good
> advice. On the other hand we're concerned that higher prices could mean
> that some people, including people that we already consider to be a part of
> our community, may be priced out. So we need to be creative and balance
> competing needs.