Cohousing-L Mailing List: RE: Market for large homes?

[Rob Sandelin (floriferous]

Sharingwood is a lot development model, people buy a lot and build a custom
house on it. We have 25 custom homes. In general, housing priced above the
median house price in our area have not sold, and one large house/ triplex
has been for sale for a large price for a long time with almost no active
interest (less than five inquiries annually). Another home just above the
median has also been on/off the market, now on again without too much
traffic. In general, the higher priced homes in our neighborhood have not
sold well recently, while homes priced at the median or below sell without
ever going on the market.

The cohousing resale market is tiny fraction of the regular housing market,
and the higher the price the smaller the market gets.  Also a large
expensive custom home has probably less of a property value growth ceiling.
The appraised value and the actual market value may differ so that you will
believe the appraised value is the price you should get on resale, even when
the market value is much lower. This is a common problem with fancy custom
home sales in our area, and also within our community.

Rob Sandelin
South Snohomish County at the headwaters of Ricci Creek
Sky Valley Environments  <http://www.nonprofitpages.com/nica/SVE.htm>
Field skills training for student naturalists
Floriferous [at] msn.com


-----Original Message-----
From: cohousing-l-admin [at] cohousing.org
[mailto:cohousing-l-admin [at] cohousing.org]On Behalf Of Fred H Olson
Sent: Saturday, August 16, 2003 9:37 AM
To: -cohousing-L mailing list
Subject: [C-L]_Market for large homes?



Carrie  Carriexp [at] aol.com
is the author of the message below.
It was posted by Fred the Cohousing-L list manager <fholson [at] cohousing.org>
because the message included HTML ;      PLEASE do not post HTML, see
   http://csf.colorado.edu/cohousing/2001/msg01672.html  and
   http://www.harley.com/turn-off-html/
--------------------  FORWARDED MESSAGE FOLLOWS --------------------
Hi All,

My family is exploring the possibility of joining the Rocky Hill Cohousing
Community that is soon to be built in Northampton, MA.  Most likely, we
would be interested in building one of the largest homes in the community
with a fair number of customizations. Concerned about the resale
implications if we should choose to do this, I am wondering what has
happened in other cohousing communities when large customized homes come
up for sale.  Have they sold quickly and easily?  Is there much of a
market for large homes in cohousing? Have the owners been able to get a
fair market value for their homes that is above what they paid to build
them?  In facing this major decision, the advice and experience of others
on this list would be much appreciated.

Many thanks,
--Carrie

P.S. A little more info...  At Rocky Hill, the resale price of a home will
be determined by a professional appraiser at fair market value.  The first
option to buy will be for the existing residents; next in line will be the
people on the waiting list; and lastly the home will be put on the open
market.  There are three other cohousing communities in the
Northampton/Amherst area, all with waiting lists.





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