Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Two homes for sale at Westwood Cohousing in Asheville, North Carolina -- update about links.

[Sue STIGLEMAN (sstigleman]

In my experience here at Westwood, people fairly often assume that cohousing is 
"affordable" housing, which isn't true for us at all.  The Asheville housing 
market is high and growing steadily higher, and there is nothing in our legal 
or physical structure that isolates or insulates us from that.  The original 
developers investigated trying to have official affordable units before 
construction but found that it was logistically impossible for them. 
There is another community outside Asheville that is what I believe is called a 
limited equity community, where each owner selling is allowed to sell for only 
a certain percentage above what they bought for.  We are not set up that way, 
and I don't know how successful it is at keeping their units affordable.   
Our homes are well-constructed, which means they weren't cheap to start with.  
We also have monthly assessments that include the common elements, good 
insurance and a nice amount of saving for future maintenance, so we're not 
inexpensive in that respect either after purchase.    
I think being "affordable" means making some very different choices before 
construction about size and amenities and living arrangements than are 
typically made in American homes.  
As Muriel said, there's been some good discussion about this in the past -- a 
search in the archives would probably pull those conversations up.  
My 2 cents.  
--sue
 Sue Stigleman sstigleman [at] bellsouth.net 828-989-9373

 
      From: Muriel Kranowski <murielk [at] vt.edu>
 To: Cohousing-L <cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org> 
 Sent: Friday, August 19, 2016 10:01 PM
 Subject: Re: [C-L]_ Two homes for sale at Westwood Cohousing in Asheville, 
North Carolina -- update about links.
   

On Fri, Aug 19, 2016 at 9:46 PM, Virgil Huston <virgil.huston1955 [at] 
gmail.com>
wrote:

> ....My question is, is there anywhere in the US where cohousing is
> actually affordable for the unwashed masses? Is there any cohousing
> available for people who cannot afford $300K plus homes? I love the
> concept, but it certainly seems like a pretty elitist thing.
>

This issue comes up a lot here. My assumption is that a house in a
cohousing community will cost about the same as a much bigger house in a
similar (non-coho) neighborhood, because of the common elements, especially
the Common House, that goes into everyone's unit price.

Is my assumption right, or is cohousing really a lot more expensive than a
similar but bigger house in a somewhat equivalent middle or slightly
upper-middle class neighborhood?

By the way, we have two units for sale now at $230K and $250K. They're both
small, probably just right for 1 person or a couple, each with a space for
a roommate to help pay the mortgage. That doesn't seem very elitist to me.
But we're not in a major city or a happening place like Asheville.
  Muriel at Shadowlake Village Cohousing in Blacksburg
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