Cohousing-L Mailing List: Local Job Market as a Factor

[O3C11N6G (normangauss]

Sharon Villines wrote:

> In our community, units sell very quickly at market price. The
> advantage is a waiting list of people ready to move in. One person
> took a few months to sell her unit but, in my opinion, there were
> complexities of personality and unreturned phone calls that delayed
> the sale. If she had used the same process that others have used, the
> very large unit would have sold in less than three months.

 A significant factor in determining how quickly units sell is the local 
job market.

In a large metropolitan area, there are likely to be many opportunities for 
employment.  My community is located far from any metropolitan area.  Most 
jobs pay much lower salaries than in megalopolis. We already have some 
couples in which the major breadwinner is only here on week-ends.

One unit was put on the market for about almost 2 years before it was 
finally bought by a couple in my community who were then able to sell their 
smaller unit to a waiting buyer.  We now have three units some of which have 
been rented out.  One small unit has been vacant for about 6 months.

In our local housing market, the difficulty of selling our cohousing units 
may be a major factor.  I would hope that this means lower selling prices. 
The unit on the market for 2 years had its original asking price lowered by 
about 10 percent before a buyer was found.

Norm Gauss