Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: appraisals

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

On Feb 4, 2014, at 11:29 AM, Kathryn McCamant <kmccamant [at] 
cohousingpartners.com> wrote:

> That's great that new condo developments in DC are including extensive
> common facilities! I am curious how many units that typically have.... How
> many share these common facilities?

A year or two after we moved in, one of our construction engineers who does 
engineering and reserve studies for condos said it would take 400 units to 
support the SF of our common house. In 10 years it might have changed but I 
doubt if very significantly.

What we need is a database for each sale in cohousing that gives all the 
standard real estate data for the unit and for the neighborhood, perhaps by SF, 
financing bank, etc. That would establish some percentages that might be 
useful. So even if your neighborhood doesn't have any condos, the banks might 
be reassured by national trends. Particularly if they were financed by the same 
bank.

One of my appraisers refused to even go into the common house because there 
were no comparables.

Sharon
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Sharon Villines
Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC
http://www.takomavillage.org