Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: RESALE VALUE OF COHO UNITS

[Bonnie Fergusson (fergyb2]

    In our area, East Bay area of the Greater San
Francisco Bay Area, Cohousing units seem to sell for
the same or higher prices than units of similar # of
bedrooms and bathrooms and square footage in the area.
However this is one of those "hot" housing market
areas which is only just now starting to cool down to
what used to pass for normal.  
     We have certainly found the same things to be
true as previous commentators, ie
1.  People ignore the value of the common house
amenities when figuring sales prices.
2.   Most sales come through "cohousing" channels,
word of mouth to friends and relatives, greens and
enviornmentalists, Unitarian church members and health
care professionals.  Someone ought to do a study of
the relative proportion of Unitarians and healthcare
professionals in cohousing vs the overall population. 
In our 20 unit community we have 5 folk working in
health care, 1 Unitarian minister and maybe 1/3 of the
group are UU's.
3.  As with all real estate deals the final sales
price reflects many factors, the local market, how
eager the seller is to sell, how well maintained
and/or attractive the unit is, special attributes of
the specific unit, etc. Recently we had two units
sell, one (studio) was on the market for over a year
until the owner got a real estate agent to "stage it"
but sold for a good price.  The other was sold at a
small discount to the going rate locally within a
month(owner was moving to the East Coast, had already
bought a house there and was interested in a quick
sale).
           Good luck in dealing with your bankers,
              Bonnie Fergusson
              Swan's Market Cohousing
              Oakland, CA

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