Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Attracting families to already existing cohousing communities

[Marganne Meyer (marganne]

At 4:25 PM -0800 2/14/10, Silas Langley wrote:
> Are there any other communities out there with a similar situation? 
> Are there any communities out there that had few kids but managed to 
> turn that around and gain more families with kids?  I would love 
> some advice or recommendations from others out there on what steps 
> we as a community might take to encourage more families to consider 
> buying a home here.  It really is a great place for kids!  Perhaps 
> we haven't yet considered something.

What is the estimated market prices of the homes you want to sell to 
families? How close to the going market rate is that for similar 
homes in the area? What's the unemployment rate. This assumes people 
aren't staying away because they aren't comfortable with cohousing. 
Are they staying away because of the price?  Families can't afford 
homes anywhere right now if they can't sell their own at a reasonable 
price, or if a family member got sick or lost their job.

I'll be interested to see if other obstacles are identified.

I've always figured if you have a 3-bedroom house but no one can 
afford it, you find someone who can live there as an owner and rent 
one or two of the bedrooms out so there would be funds for the loan.

Do people build homes in projects where they anticipate designated 
rentals? Like a Granny House or make an apartment out of the 
basement? It might not be something people would like to do, but it 
makes things possible.