Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Building the Commonhouse

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

On Jun 6, 2005, at 12:45 PM, Princess Pepperonia of the Pizza People 
wrote:

> Did you all start out with 100k houses?  Good grief!  One of the 
> advantages of cohousing could be financial; is there any way those of 
> us who aren't rich can get in on the deal?  Does anyone have 
> experience/suggestions starting a community on a much smaller budget?  
> I envision building & living in the common house while saving money to 
> build (small) individual homes.  If we'd be likely to still be 
> speaking to each other by then.

Most communities cannot afford to build the commonhouse first. It is 
easier to build all at once and include the commonhouse in the 
construction loan and in each person's mortgage.

Do an inexpensive housing development would be very good but few have 
accomplished it as cohousing. That may be because those who are most 
able to develop their own projects have more money or means, perhaps 
education. It's hard and takes a long time.

Part of the problem is that developers are not jumping up and down to 
design or build inexpensive housing. It's a lot of work and not much 
pay-back. Some have used pre-fab homes but I think those are still 
expensive.

Sharon
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Sharon Villines
Building Community: A Newsletter on Coops, Condos, Cohousing, and Other 
New Neighborhoods
http://www.buildingcommunitynews.org