Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Affordable housing

[Philip Dowds (rpdowds]

No question that a group of like=minded people can come together and form a 
limited equity coop.  Nonetheless, this is not a magical approach that will 
suddenly make life more affordable:  Whether one takes over an existing (market 
rate) property, or builds a new building on purchased land, the dwelling units 
will have an origination cost about equal to comparable units nearby.

And, what if you move?  Not driven out by greedy landlords, but rather because 
you now have more kids, or fewer kids, or a better job in another state, or to 
be near family in another state?  In an ideal world, perhaps, there will be 
many PRECs to choose from -- but in today's world, you will end up choosing 
from among market rate units, and you might need the equity from your current 
unit to pay for your next one.

The PREC model seems to ask households to invert the capitalist dynamic:  Buy 
high then sell low, for the biggest investment most people ever make.  While 
there is much we can and should and MUST do to repair capitalism, I'm not 
convinced that PRECs are part of the winning strategy.

Thanks,
Philip Dowds
Cornerstone Cohousing
Cambridge, MA

> On Sep 7, 2016, at 10:39 PM, Tiffany Lee Brown <magdalen23 [at] gmail.com> 
> wrote:
> 
> 
> re: http://www.theselc.org/homeownership_is_dead
> 
> PRECs sound like a great idea. but how do you get that first giant chunk of
> land set aside, invested in, funded? is there a model that could combine
> some of the greed/investment mentality we have in our housing with the idea
> of not allowing gentrification to drive up real estate prices? could there
> be some sort of gradation, to encourage investors/developers to help make
> this happen? show them a small amount of fast profit that could be made
> from their initial investment, and then on an ongoing basis, the homes are
> owned by the collective?
> 
> and if the only chance that most everyday, middle-class people have of
> investing their money and seeing a return on it is the home they live in
> --- how do we change that reality? most of us still want to "get ahead,"
> e.g. we like to fantasize about having enough retirement that we won't be
> eating dog food and having to skip our expensive heart medicine when we're
> older. most of us cannot afford to pay rent/mortgage AND then also invest
> in something else substantial. i know my family, which has extensive
> medical bills, could never pull that off. the only way we paid off our
> debts and were able to move someplace healthier was by selling our house in
> a neighborhood that's gotten really hot. if all our money was going to
> day-to-day living (such as a co-op in which we won't ever see any return),
> what would we do?
> 
> so confusing.
> 
> 
> tiffany
> 
> 
> tiffany lee brown
> 
> editor, plazm magazine
> director, new oregon arts & letters
> 
> On Wed, Sep 7, 2016 at 4:59 AM, Fred-List manager <fholson [at] cohousing.org>
> wrote:
> 
>> 
>> Christian Stalberg <christian [at] naturalintelligence.us>
>> is the author of the message below.  It was posted by
>> Fred, the Cohousing-L list manager <fholson [at] cohousing.org>
>> due to a format problem.
>> --------------------  FORWARDED MESSAGE FOLLOWS --------------------
>> 
>> Y’all might enjoy this article: Homeownership is Dead! Long Live the
>> Permanent Real Estate Cooperative!
>> http://www.theselc.org/homeownership_is_dead
>> 
>> Regards,
>> _
>> 
>> Christian Stalberg
>> Community Incubator
>> Tel. 415.942.3325
>> http://communityincubator.net
>> _________________________________________________________________
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