Re: strategies to rein in escalating purchase prices
From: Olaf Kula (kulaolaf1957gmail.com)
Date: Thu, 27 May 2021 05:58:12 -0700 (PDT)
Stefani,

Thank you for taking the time to reply to my posting.  You give good
counsel on waiting a little while for the market to adjust.   While
predicting housing markets is outside of any of our expertise,  there is a
concern that if building cost inflation triggers broader inflation,
triggering a rise in interest rates, future building cost savings will be
offset by higher financial costs.

But postpone we will, if only because we will lose too many members at the
current >30% price surge.

I am curious, given your background, if you are familiar with the
European, *passiv
*architectural standards.   One  of the major cost drivers, appears to be
our integration of passiv design,  which we hope will take us close to net
zero energy use for heating and cooling.  One question is in finding more
builders familiar with passiv architecture to bid on this contract.   The
other is whether there are grants, lending concessions, or tax incentives,
to offset the higher building costs.

Again, thanks for responding to my query and I hope to hear from you
shortly.

Olaf




On Thu, May 27, 2021 at 8:38 AM Stefani Danes <sl47 [at] andrew.cmu.edu> wrote:

> Olaf, this is a very difficult time to plan construction because of the
> intersection of reduced production and increased demand in building
> materials over the last year.  Everyone I’ve consulted believes the prices
> will start to come down later this year.  If you have the option of holding
> off on your project for a while—maybe up to a year?—you might not face the
> same problem.
>
> Stefani Danes
> Rachel Carson EcoVillage
>
> On May 25, 2021, at 10:05 AM, Olaf Kula <kulaolaf1957 [at] gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Thank you Ann for your thoughtful response. I am with ABQ Co-housing, dba
> Bosque Co-housing.
>
>
>
> On Tue, May 25, 2021 at 09:16 Main Email <zabaldo [at] earthlink.net> wrote:
>
> > Hello Olaf— I feel your pain.
> >
> > Unless I’m completely mistaken most cohousing communities have to go
> > through this period Sometimes called “value engineering. “ Not unusual
> for
> > our eyes to be a lot bigger than our checkbooks.
> >
> > It stings.
> >
> > We certainly did that here when Takomavillage in Washington DC was right
> > at construction phase.  It’s been over 20 years so I don’t recall the
> > details but I do remember one consideration we had was to keep anything
> > inside the walls – geothermal, insulation, etc. - because
> > obviously changing or adding things later inside the walls would be so
> > much higher.
> >
> > Unfortunately, you are also trying to build at one of the most difficult
> > times for construction. Lack of labor, lack of materials, unstable supply
> > lines, vs super demand for housing. I heard just yesterday that people
> > whose homes were burnt out in the California fires 4 years ago are still
> > waiting for checks to rebuild their homes wherever they’re going to build
> > them.  Get in line…
> >
> > Just thinking out loud here… The first place to start is with your
> > architect and engineer. Or your developer or your developer consultant -
> > whomever is on your professional team. One of these folks is responsible
> > for bringing in the design within the budget. So I would be going back to
> > them to find out what they recommend.
> >
> > I would not recommend building the common house later. Later always gets
> > to be much much much later. If at all   You may end up with a Common
> House
> > that doesn’t suit your needs. My experience shows that the common house
> is
> > the place that the group will seek to make cuts. That’s not necessarily a
> > bad thing but the cuts can get so deep because they don’t want to take it
> > out of their personal houses. The common house becomes second cousin to
> the
> > whole development. Or maybe even a third cousin. Or maybe even at least
> one
> > case I know of they never got their Common House at all.   Consider
> > removing bells and whistles  from your individual units.  I know. It’s
> > heresy. But not within the Cohousing tradition in which you are looking
> to
> > Build a Community not just bricks and mortar housing. As Katie McCamant
> > says: you are building a neighborhood. I take that to mean the overall
> feel
> > and accessibility to common features of the whole construction.  What’s
> > going to draw people out into the whole space Not just the interior and
> > exterior of individual homes but the whole gestalt?
> >
> > Do you have a website so we can see the design?
> >
> > Just a gentle gentle reminder to everyone posting… It’s a great service
> to
> > people reading like me to know the name of your community, where you are
> in
> > the world and just a little something about where you are in your process
> > for instance: forming, building, built, expanding.  One of my goals is to
> > build a sense of Community whatever medium I’m using.  This is especially
> > true for an email list.  Even us old timers contributing to the list I
> > might be mindful about including this information because there are
> always
> > new folks Joining us.
> >
> > Ann Zabaldo
> > Takoma Village Cohousing
> > Washington DC
> >
> > Sent from my iPhone
> > All tiipos ... curtesy of Siri  :-)
> >
> >> On May 25, 2021, at 7:36 AM, Olaf Kula <kulaolaf1957 [at] gmail.com> wrote:
> >>
> >> We are looking for advice on strategies that different co-housing
> >> communities have used to rein in escalating home purchase prices.  Our
> > most
> >> recent construction estimates are some 30% higher than most of us were
> >> aware of.   The sticker shock threatens the ability of some members on
> >> fixed incomes to remain.
> >>
> > Snip
> >
> >> Please share any and all ideas.
> >>
> >> Optimistically,
> >>
> >> Olaf
> >>
> >>
> >
> > _________________________________________________________________
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> >
> >
> >
> _________________________________________________________________
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>
>
>
> Stefani Danes FAIA LEED-AP
> Architect and Adjunct Professor
> Research Fellow, Remaking Cities Institute
> Carnegie Mellon University
>
> T: 412-441-2948
> E: sdanes [at] cmu.edu
>
>
>
>
>
>
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