Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: affordable cohousing-size an issue?

[James Kacki (jimkacki]

An interesting point that Duncan makes concerns smaller units.  I am not 
an expert in co-housing, but my sense was that originally, one of the 
premises of co-housing was to have smaller individual units because of 
the presence of the larger spaces in the common house where some portion 
of one's day /living/dining etc. was to take place.  It seems that in 
North America, some communities chose to have it all: common house plus 
regular-sized individual units.
I would be interested in some feedback on this.  Is this a North 
American adaptation of the original premise, or am I off-base? Did 
any/many of you plan your communities with smaller than average 
individual units in mind? -Could be an interesting thread. It certainly 
is relevant to the issue of affordability.
James
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Duncan Cavens wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> One example of affordable cohousing: Roberts Creek Cohousing, in Roberts 
> Creek, Canada.  We're about 2/3s built, with the remaining homes 
> complete by the middle of December, and the 3500sq. ft. common house 
> projected to be complete by the end of January.
>
> It all depends a bit on how you define 'affordable'- our house prices 
> range from about $170k for a one bedroom, $205k for a 2 bedroom, $235k 
> for a 3 bedroom, to $256k for a 4 bedroom.    All prices are in Canadian 
> dollars (multiply by .83 for American figures).  While this might not be 
> affordable to everyone in our target market, it's certainly affordable 
> compared to what's happening around us in the greater real estate 
> market. What's interesting is that when we started planning about 4 
> years ago, we were a bit above market prices (depending on your 
> definition of what a market home is), but now, we're definetely way 
> below the market.  A quick search on the main Real Estate website for 
> our local community turns up no houses (we're all sold out) below 270k, 
> only 2 below 300k, and only 5 below 400k.  As we're in a particularly 
> desirable part of the Sunshine Coast, extending that search to the two 
> next communities reveals no homes below ~ $160k, and relatively few 
> under $200k.
>
> I think it's also worth remembering that without subsidies (we had 
> none), it's almost impossible to do "affordable housing" with new 
> construction.    To my mind, the real test is how your construction 
> costs compare to other new houses in your community- if they're way 
> over, you have a problem.  Otherwise, you are expecting cohousing to 
> solve other larger societal problems that it doesn't have much chance of 
> doing.
>
> How did we do it?  Excellent management (although it caused/causes us 
> much frustration, our consultant, Ronaye Matthew of CDC, has been very 
> insistent on cost controls and no customization), excellent builders, 
> and very, very small houses.  (750 - 1300 sq. ft for a 4 bedroom 
> house.)  Small, but livable- I've been struck by how large many of the 
> American cohousing homes I've seen on websites are.
>
> Duncan
> -- currently living in a 540sq. ft 2 bedroom apartment, so eagerly 
> anticipating moving into our palatial 860sq. ft. 2 bedroom house
> Roberts Creek Cohousing, British Columbia, Canada
> http://www.cohousing.ca/robertscreek
>
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