Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: economics of resale

[Dave and Diane (daveanddee]

Hi Lou,

At Jamaica Plain Cohousing in Boston the owners set the resale price.  
Affordable units are only allowed to appreciate 5% per year (plus the  
cost of improvements). We have 30 days right of first refusal to find  
someone on our list to buy at that price.

How can you add something in for the common elements? Well, I suppose  
you could ask the seller to give you the square footage of all the  
common elements, divide that by the number of units, and then you'd  
have a ballpark figure for the additional space you get in cohousing.  
But if the common elements contain something fancy like a health club  
or a swimming pool, I do not know how to evaluate that.

I cannot say if cohousing is running higher (price-wise) than  
comparable condominiums or townhouses in our area--resale information  
on our units is below. I hope this is helpful.


            06/5/05     12/05/07    % change
Unit 211  317,571.00-->337,000.00  +1.06118001959

           06/13/05     04/17/08
Unit 304  340,110.00-->355,000.00  +1.04377995354

           06/24/05     03/27/08
Unit 204  197,600.00-->225,366.00  +1.14051619433  (affordable unit)

           05/09/05     09/21/09
Unit 210  321,005.00-->338,000.00  +1.05294310057

--Diane(:^]


outreach facilitator
jp cohousing  617-522-2209
Box 300420 boston ma
http://www.jpcohousing.org
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"The people who surround you define the quality of your life."

On Jun 3, 2010, at 6:16 AM, Lou Lieb <louislieb [at] yahoo.com> wrote:

> Being new to this, and interested in purchasing an existing unit,  
> how should I understand the resale value? For example, how would an  
> appraiser go about finding "comparables", since co-housing is very  
> different and attracts a fairly small group of interested people?  
> If the "comparable" non-cohousing unit doesn't have common  
> facilities, how do you add in something for the common elements?
> Is co-housing running higher (price-wise) than comparable  
> condominiums or townhouses?
> Lou