Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: financing doesn't define cohousing

[Lynn Nadeau (welcome]

Rob responded to RoseWind:
>All the homes are privately financed? You are the first and only cohousing 
group that I have heard that uses that model.  

Lynn clarifies: I was differentiating between what belongs to RoseWind 
Cohousing -- the land and the common house, which were done with cash. 
RoseWind owned the whole site originally, both the commons and the 
building lots. But we sold the lots, one after another, to joining 
members, and now all 23 lots are owned by members. As the money came in 
from lot sales, we first paid off the land (so we could do the Planned 
Unit Development process with the City), then paid for the infrastructure 
(which was required before we could build anything), and then paid for 
the common house. It all came out even in the end.

(Can this really be a unique approach? It's a straight forward way to 
spend the money as you get it, without going into debt. I thought all 
"lot development" models worked like that, but I forgot that at least 
some, like Rob's, are condos not nonprofit mutual benefit corporations, 
which I guess changes things. But surely others have taken this approach? 
Talking Circle, on Whidbey Island, is also a nonprofit with a HOA.) 

Individual homes are built, and paid for, according to the individual 
owners, some of whom have mortgages, of course. But that does not involve 
RoseWind. I've never heard that anyone had trouble getting a construction 
loan because we are cohousing. We each have "normal" ownership of our lot 
(about 5000 sq ft, like other city lots) and can resell it like other 
real estate. The property is bound to RoseWind through the CC&Rs, Bylaws, 
PUDA with the City, and other documents of the Homeowners' Association, 
which run with the deed. Ownership=membership. 

AND the point I wanted to make in my post was simply that I didn't see 
any function in DEFINING cohousing by how it is financed. All the usual 
definitions, such as appeared in the Cohousing Journal 10th anniversary 
issue, are far more relevant, to my mind. If it's member designed and 
managed, has extensive common facilities, intentional neighborliness and 
mutual support and interaction, and that sort of thing, that seems to be 
useful definition. However it is or isn't financed. Which may be 
interesting to observe and describe, nonetheless. 

Lynn Nadeau





Most cohouisng start ups are self financed, but later the
>homes are then financed by mortgages. I imagine if you don't use bank
>mortgages either owners hold the contracts or the buyers pay cash? How do
>resales happen? I would think not having bank mortgages would  really limit
>your ability to resell a home.
> I would only differ in the "bank financed" part.
>It certainly is not part the DEFINITION of cohousing, though it often
>describes it.


Lynn Nadeau, RoseWind Cohousing
Port Townsend Washington (Victorian seaport, music, art, nature)
http://www.olypen.com/sstowell/rosewind
http://www.ptguide.com

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