Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Home for sale in Swan's Market Cohousing, Oakland CA

[Virgil Huston (virgil.huston1955]

Even before the last few years, I had already figured out I was never going
to live in a co-housing community. All other considerations are dwarfed by
price. I own a house, but I love the community aspect that co-housing
potentially offers. I live in a decent lower tier neighborhood in a
Southern state, in a ranch house in a 1950s close-in suburb of a medium
sized city. With the exception of the community aspect, it is perfect for
an older couple like we are. It also cost us $135K. That was right before
the latest housing bubble. 4 small bedrooms (by today's standards, very
small, nice little yard easy to maintain, close to shopping, old trees
compared to modern developments that never have any trees, plus not five
hundred bathrooms as seems to be required today, etc. I don't think I have
seen a studio apartment in co-housing that was even close in price. So, at
our age, we would be idiots to try to move and find anything today.
Anywhere, including in my city. I can't even imagine California. We also
would never qualify for any subsidies. So, we are totally locked out and,
as I said, at our age, this is it before giving even that house up for
whatever Medicare will pay for people who have nothing for an old
folk's home. Such is life and we consider ourselves lucky until we need
something involving assisted living/nursing home. I am familiar with a
couple Southern co-housing communities and price is simply ridiculous for
what you get. Plus, what is often not discussed is the community and HOA
type fees. Even if we could afford a mortgage, no way we are affording
those fees. Co-housing is for a select few who have both the desire and
money to live in a community of this kind. I guess this is somewhat a wider
critique of prices in general, but co-housing seems to make these
inflationary increases pale in comparison. And I just kind of chuckle when
I read all the discussions about "affordable" housing. My wife and I
wouldn't qualify for anything like that, even though we live at poverty
line income. I do consider us extremely lucky because so many are nowhere
as fortunate. Being retired Army, we have TRICARE, which is worth far more
than my monthly retirement income as an enlisted National Guard soldier
(which is not much), given how expensive health insurance is. I am
genuinely happy for anyone who can afford these places or any place at all.
At least hedge fund companies don't have their hooks into co-housing yet.

On Wed, Mar 8, 2023 at 11:09 PM Kathryn McCamant <
kmccamant [at] cohousing-solutions.com> wrote:

> I know that housing prices are often a shock for those who have not been
> in the market recently, and particularly in our more expensive cities. I
> also am frustrated by the cost of housing, and particularly new housing of
> all sorts including cohousing, and the ever growing gap between what people
> can afford and what it cost in the current American system. I encourage all
> of you to call your Congresspeople and demand we make housing a basic
> right, and then fund that right with our taxes.
>
> That said, I took a look at the home available at Swans, and it looks like
> a great, very well-priced (ie a deal! could never build it for that price
> in Oakland today, by a third).
>
>  https://www.ic.org/advert/live-in-historic-swans-market-cohousing/
>
> I launched the Swan’s Community many years (decades) ago…. And could tell
> you stories of its earliest forming, but no one asked me or is paying me
> for this….just my own opinion.
>
> Katie
> --
> Kathryn McCamant, President
> CoHousing Solutions
> Nevada City, CA 95959
> T.530.478.1970  C.916.798.4755
> www.cohousing-solutions.com
>
> And Nevada City Cohousing, previously resident at Doyle Street Cohousing
>
>
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