Cohousing-L Mailing List: RE: Households with Children

[Eileen McCourt (emccourt]

At Oak Creek Commons, where we are in the process of building 31
condominiums, and 5 single family homes, the most popular plan is a small 3
BR/1.5 BA with 1150 sq. ft. In fact, we do not have enough of this plan to
meet the need (we planned for 10), and people are purchasing down rather
than up.  This does make the price somewhat higher for the smaller homes,
because we do not have as many larger homes to offset the costs.  The
largest condominium homes are 1390-1450 sq. ft.  One plan has 3 BR and one
has 4.  There are a total of 8 of these homes, and so far only one family
with children has signed up for one.

So, we have 21 homes under 1200 sq. ft., 19 of which have been called for, 8
by families that have or plan to have children at home.  We have 10 homes
over 1200 sq. ft., 7 of which have been called for, 1 by a family with a
young child.  We have 3 of 5 lots remaining.  Both lots that have been
selected will be purchased by single women, one with grown children.  We
have 10 households with one person, 8 with young children, and 9 couples
without children at home.

In our group 900-1150 sq. ft. is a very popular size, with either 2 or 3
bedrooms and a storage/loft area.  Most of the sq. ft. in our homes is in
the "great room".  The bedrooms are small.  These homes have from one and
half to two baths.  The families with young children we have attracted are
struggling to meet the requirements for down payments and mortgage payments
even on the smaller homes.  The bigger homes are simply too expensive.  That
doesn't mean that other people with more assets won't buy the larger homes,
but it's important to know the demographic that you are targeting and what
you are trying to achieve.  One of the reasons that we are not already sold
out is that the marketing team refocused on attracting more families with
young children, which slowed down the membership rate.  More than 80% of our
membership so far now live at least 150 miles from Oak Creek Commons, which
is not particularly appealing for families with teenagers who are already
established in their schools and communities.

Our original plan called for more larger homes, but when it came time for
the actual home selection workshops, the homes ended up being smaller, and
it does put a strain on the pricing.

--eileen

Eileen McCourt
Oak Creek Commons
Cohousing in Paso Robles, CA
emccourt [at] mindspring.com
http://oakcreekcommons.org/


 -----Original Message-----
From:   cohousing-l-admin [at] cohousing.org
[mailto:cohousing-l-admin [at] cohousing.org]  On Behalf Of Carol A Brennan
Sent:   Tuesday, September 25, 2001 8:14 AM
To:     cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org
Subject:        [C-L]_Households with Children

Reading the recent postings on families brought to mind a question that
came up at a recent sharing circle of the Greater Hartford Cohousing
Group. I was hoping that some established communities can help answer it.


Due to financial reasons the vast majority of homes in our future
community have been proposed to be 3 and 4 bedrooms (80% of 34 homes).
We are assuming that households with children will be purchasing these
homes.  Currently, our small group (which has been together for almost 2
years now) consists mainly of people with no children or grown children.
We are assuming also (and hoping) that once we find land, more families
with school-age children (or younger) will be joining us.  Not only
because we want a multi-generational community with children, but
practically, we will need them to buy these bigger homes.

So, my questions are - how realistic is this assumption?   What is the
percentage of households with children to the total households in other
communities?  What is the percentage of  3 & 4 bedroom homes?

We've been looking for land for over a year and while the lack of an
available site is very frustrating, we continue to become more educated
as we go along.  This info will be  just another step along in our
education.  Thanks to all who can help us out.

Carol Brennan
Greater Hartford Cohousing
carolb33 [at] juno.com

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