Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Mix of unit size?

[Ellen Keyne Seebacher (elle]

On Sat, Mar 24, 2012 at 10:01:41PM -0400, Christina Smillie wrote:

> Thanks to both Nancy and Sharon for your input. Very very helpful. 
> Anyone else have info for us? Thanks.

We had multiple complicating factors.  One is that in order to get
built, Sawyer Hill Ecovillage (Mosaic Commons + Camelot Cohousing) had
to designate a quarter of our total units as affordable according to
state income guidelines (under the Massachusetts "40B" law -- for
guidelines, see http://sawyerhill.org/40b), and subsidize those units.

When Mosaic planned our unit mix, we did so based on the preferences
of the people then in the group:  4 1BR flats (650-700 SF), 10 2BR
townhouses, 9 small 3BRs, 6 large 3BRs, and 5 4BRs (1800 SF).  We
designated some of our 1BR, 2BR and smaller 3BR units as affordable,
and folded their costs into the overall house prices.

The second complicating factor was the housing-market crash, which
happened shortly before we finished construction.  Seemingly
overnight, several of our members found themselves underwater on their
old homes and found themselves unable to buy here, and several others
had to downsize to smaller units to be able to afford to move.  The
smaller market-rate units sold quickly, especially the 3BRs.

Of the five 4BRs we started with, four of which were spoken for in
2008 and the fifth which was leaning that way, only one was actually
bought and moved into in 2009.  The other four took three years and
multiple price drops to sell ... at less than half of what they cost
the group.  (Lesson #1 is "don't build larger homes right before
a market crash.")  On the plus side, one was bought by an existing
resident who decided to upsize. :)

Now that all our market-rate homes (except for two resales) are spoken
for, we're trying to figure out how to sell our remaining income-limited
homes:  the state guidelines are set in such a way that sometimes
a household which can qualify for a mortgage can't meet the income
limit, and vice versa!  If anyone reading this is interested in a
a 2- or 3BR home in cohousing, has modest assets and income, and meets
the qualifications at http://www.mosaic-commons.org/40b, please talk
to us. :-)



        Ellen Seebacher
        Mosaic Commons / Sawyer Hill Ecovillage, Berlin, MA