Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Average Turn Over

[Kay Argyle (kay.argyle]

I too have wondered what the range of turnover is among communities. The
subject usually only appears as a throwaway comment in a for-sale notice,
"our first unit to come available in three years."  Nobody boasts about "our
second unit available this summer." Is a low turnover the norm? Or do
communities with more turnover choose not to discuss it, the way communities
are sometimes reluctant to confess they don't (for shame!) have common
meals? 

We've gone through periods of stability where someone was 'the newest
member' for a couple of years, and others when, as someone said plaintively
at the last community meeting, "I don't know who lives here anymore."  Our
average is probably close to three new households per year.

Twenty-six units, going on ten years.

The "running of the furniture" is a not-quite-annual event, with at least
nine (or ten, depending on definitions) households past and present having
changed units.  One household has lived in four different units. 

Nine original households are still present, including three (out of an
initial five) renters. One unit has had four owners; another has had six
renters (if I haven't forgotten someone).  Currently eleven units are
rentals.

There's a common prejudice that renters are less stable than owners. It
depends on why they are renting: a single parent on a tight budget, a
disabled or older person on a fixed income, someone cautious about making
sure cohousing is a good fit before they buy, a footloose young single who
wants to be able to up-anchor at short notice, to travel or join a
significant other or accept a job following graduation.

The moral being, don't build a one-bedroom rental up a flight of stairs.  It
selects for people who aren't settled.

Kay