Cohousing-L Mailing List: RE: House Pricing in House Selection Process

[Rob Sandelin (robsan]

At Sharingwood the first phase consists of 17 building lots.  The lots 
vary considerably in size, solar access, access to the road, etc.  All 
the lots were initially priced the same.  As time went by we accrued 
continuing development costs and these were added to the price of the 
unsold lots, including taxes.  So if you bought a lot early on you paid 
less for it initially and over time through assessments you paid about 
the same as someone who bought a lot later, but had to pay more all at 
once. The only real price break came in the real estate excise tax 
being lower for the lower priced lots.  This has not caused any 
problems within our group that I am aware of.

6 of the 17 lots are still undeveloped but are owned.  The owners of 
these lots can sell them at whatever price they wish to.  One owner who 
recently sold a lot, sold it for what the lot cost her. The only house 
which has sold here sold at a $20,000 profit.  Since all our houses are 
unique, the only common value would be the value of the lot. To my 
surprise, all the lots, big and small at Sharingwood, all have the 
exact same tax assessment value.  This seems odd to me since I would 
thought the larger lots would have been assessed higher.

In terms of house pricing it seems remarkable to me that anyone could 
argue that the value of  homes are equal unless they are equal in all 
degrees.

Rob Sandelin
Sharingwood.