Cohousing-L Mailing List: Bank loan guarantees

[Dean smith (deansmith4]

Hi Everyone, first time poster here.

We are a small (at present) group striving to establish a cohousing community 
on 4.75 acres in Marysville, WA.  We’ve tried to work with 4 banks and are now 
on our 5th.  Land here is going up in price so fast that we thought it would be 
best to try to buy even before we’ve got the community assembled.  This has 
been so frustrating.  Finally, my wife and I are trying to buy the land 
ourselves with the expectation that we will convey it to our LLC later.  We’re 
trying to purchase  the 4.75 acres with an existing home (built in 1948 but in 
good shape) as an investment.  We expect to rent it for a year or two while 
we’re getting the community designed and construction under way.  We think that 
the idea of a cohousing community would be a lot easier to “sell” if there is a 
place to look at.

So here is what I think we need, from my perspective of being in the middle of 
trying to create something:  We need a program of federal bank loan guarantees 
for cohousing.  Big corporations, farmers, exporters get such loans.  Why not 
people?  

What would you all think of that.  It would probably take years, but that’s no 
reason for not starting now.

Dean Smith, Evergreen State Sustainable Communities, LLC