Cohousing-L Mailing List: RE: Vacancy management & turnover rates

[Chapel, Thomas (TKC4]

Lake Claire Cohousing in Atlanta is small--13 households.  Since move in in 
March 1997 we've had the following departures:  1 in 1998, 1 in 1999, 2 in 
2001, 1 current vacancy.  So almost 1 per year.  In most cases the moves were 
due to life and job changes and not dissatisfaction with the community, so 
think it's right to say coho is "stable" housing format--if Americans weren't 
so transient.  Fortunately--until this current one--we filled the vacancies 
very quickly.  Because (1) we had someone in the "wings" from a quasi-waiting 
list/associate member list that we could draw  and (2)  one of our householders 
is a real estate agent who put in lots of time and effort to facilitate the 
sale.   For some reason the current unit has been on the market longer than in 
the past, probably because we have not been aggressive about getting and 
maintaining a waiting list of interested folks.  And in addition, if the stars 
converge in the wrong way (for the community not the individual households), 
life changes and job changes may cause a few more units to go on the market.  
So we are just now talking about being intentional about getting a  waiting 
list going.
 
 
-----Original Message----- 
From: cohousing-l-bounces+tchapel=cdc.gov [at] cohousing.org on behalf of Fred 
H Olson 
Sent: Fri 8/6/2004 11:07 AM 
To: Developing cohousing - collaborative housing communities 
Cc: 
Subject: Re: [C-L]_ Vacancy management & turnover rates



        On Thu, 5 Aug 2004 rob [at] v2b.org wrote:
        
        > We're currently researching issues for the investor's due process, 
one of
        > which deals with turnover rates and vacancy management in comparable
        > communities. I'm looking for a couple of things from anyone who'd be
        > willing to share their experience:
        >
        > 1. What vacancy rate have you experienced at your housing 
cooperatives?
        
        Good to see another midwest cohousing group organizing.
        There are not too many midwest cohousing communities.
        
        My general impression is that turnover in cohousing is relatively low
        but I have no stats or even detailed anecdotes handy (or even a 
benchmark
        for non-cohousing comparable housing. When we visited one of the 
earliest
        cohousing communities in Denmark we learned that they had such a low
        turnover that it created a "problem". In 25 years (basically noone 
moved)
        that they had no children - they'd all grown up long ago and moved 
away...
        (They'd all been young families when they started and had none had died
        to free up a unit yet...  Initial age diversity would have helped.
                                                                                
                        
        Did you try searching the list archives?  See link to new archives via
        the Info page (link at bottom of every list message).
        
        Fred
        
        --
        Fred H. Olson  Minneapolis,MN 55411  USA        (near north Mpls)
        Communications for Justice - My new listserv org.       UU, Linux
        My Link Page: http://fholson.cohousing.org       Ham radio:WB0YQM
        fholson at cohousing.org   612-588-9532   (7am-10pm Central time)
        
        
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