Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: A strategy for affordability

[Megan McDonough (mcdonough.megan]

Hello all -

There are manufactured housing parks (i.e. "trailer parks") being converted
to coops all across the country right now - and ther is no reason why this
could not be done in conjunction with a cohousing style common house and
community building mindset.

In the north east the Cooperative Development Institute has been providing
technical assistance to parks that want to convert into cooperatives.  You
can read more on their website: http://www.cdi.coop/snerocpg1.php

Thanks,
Megan



> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 8
> Date: Mon, 17 May 2010 00:54:09 -0400 (EDT)
> From: bb [at] stat.ufl.edu
> Subject: Re: [C-L]_ A strategy for affordability
> To: "Cohousing-L" <cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org>
> Message-ID:
>        <2806.97.72.203.123.1274072049.squirrel [at] eelpout.stat.ufl.edu>
> Content-Type: text/plain;charset=iso-8859-1
>
> > I'm a little puzzled about your response--I was referring to the
> > lack of affordability of cohousing.
>
> As I understand it, cohousing is a form of intentional community with
> more sharing than the typical condominium, but not sharing of incomes
> or a single employment venture.  Nothing in this definition says the
> houses must be fancy enough that the entry price is $300K.  In theory,
> cohousing could be done in a trailer park or long-term campground.  It
> might be being done there now in some parks where the social
> atmosphere has encouraged the right kind of sharing to gel.
>
> Isn't the simplest and most obvious approach to cheap housing to start
> with a house that's already cheap?  I hope you might wonder: "Why
> won't the zoning department approve me to build a brand new trailer
> park affordable coho on an infill lot downtown where the jobs and
> transportation are dense?"  They won't even permit it made from
> self-erected SIP panel Katrina cottage kits, which meet desirable
> energy efficiency standards.  That cohousing is expensive is a
> political problem, not a building construction technological problem.
>
> > Using a CLT or any other limited equity (e.g. LE coop) model
> > requires disconnecting from the notion that housing, in addition to
> > providing a home, should also be treated as an investment necessary
> > for one's financial future or that of one's heirs.
>
> Like an automobile, a house is a durable good whose value decreases
> with time, which requires constant and substantial spending on
> maintenance to keep it from falling apart and being ruined.  Nothing
> about a house would cause it to appreciate in value, ever, unless it
> is the rare collectible classic.  The large outflow for maintenance
> and mortgage interest makes a house you live in ineffective as an
> investment or savings method.  If the majority of houses appear to
> increase in value, much less double, that appearance is make-believe.
>
> > A main problem is the market that, till recently, pushes prices very
> > high in many places.
>
> The market?  What kind of buying and selling activity could possibly
> make all the boring but workable used cars double in apparent value in
> ten years?  How exactly would that work?
>
> Brian
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
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> End of Cohousing-L Digest, Vol 76, Issue 23
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