Cohousing-L Mailing List: Mortgage lenders and cohousing

[Thomas Lofft (tlofft]

Liz Walker <liz [at] ecovillage.ithaca.ny.us>
is the author of the message below.   Very interesting. We had two banks (both 
of which had worked with us
in the past) turn down our third cohousing neighborhood, TREE, for a
construction loan. We've had excellent luck with one of our local
credit unions, CFCU, which was very happy to loan us $3M for
construction, and will probably carry all the mortgages as well.
We've never had any defaults in our history of 16 years of mortgage
lending, with two neighborhoods and a total of 60 homes. So it seemed
very strange to me that with a proven track record, and homes that
just keep increasing in value, that the other banks were not
interested. This thread helps to explain that.
 
Liz Walker, EcoVillage at Ithaca Banks are institutions, but they are 
institutions run by people who are more protective of their own interests than 
of their clients' interests.If a banker is fearful of increasing Fed 
restrictions, bankers adopt a CYA attitude and shy away from anything that 
might be turned against them in any event of a future problem.  A lot like CYA 
politicians.  Don't approve anything that wasn't approved by your controlling 
power.