Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Limited Equity models?

[Raines Cohen (rc3-coho-L]

Congratulations and welcome to the community of cohousing communities,
Elissa. You've got an inspirational community vision, in a great place
(West side of Portland, OR) with lots of long-established communities; I'm
glad to hear it is well underway, and asking this sort of question is a
"good problem to have." For folks who want to learn more about your
community, I see that they can go to:
https://www.bloomawebuiltcommunityllc.org/

My home community, Berkeley Cohousing, as Kavana mentions, is a rare breed,
a "limited-equity Condominium," rather than the "limited-equity (housing)
coop" (LEHC) form sometimes used in partnership with Community Land Trusts
(CLTs). I know of one other community that uses our model, albeit in
partnership with a CLT: Mariposa Grove Cohousing in Oakland. In both, 100%
of the homes are at below-market prices, not just a small "inclusionary"
portion. By being a condominium, buyers qualify for competitive mortgage
rates from a variety of banks, rather than being limited to a small pool of
lenders and higher rates and poorer terms.

In our deed restrictions with the city, which we negotiated (and legalized)
as an alternative to condo-conversion fees for taking eight rent-controlled
homes off the market as we were self-developing, we indexed prices to Area
Median Income (AMI). Our intent was to have permanent affordability, like
CLTs provide through 99-year ground leases and taking the property value
out of the equation. However, attorneys don't like "perpetuities," and so
the arrangement was set to run for 30 years from our first sale, which is
nearly up (some of us are in discussions with CLTs and similar groups to
find ways to extend affordability, although it will be home-by-home rather
than for the full community).

We get to index both the purchase price and individual plus our share of
collective improvements through the AMI difference from the year of
purchase or improvement, and we have invested a fair amount over time, both
in upgrades when elements need replacement, and doing things we couldn't
afford initially. Some of the homes have "expansion areas," pre-approved
envelopes (in the architectural sense of the term) where we can build up
and out with an expedited approval process.

Plus, area AMIs have climbed rapidly in recent years, as our metro area
includes commuters to San Francisco and Silicon Valley, and the high market
prices for homes for rent or sale and state-mandated vacancy decontrol when
rental homes turn over, even in rent-controlled cities, plus high land and
construction costs for new developments, has meant that only people with
higher incomes can move in, further driving up AMI, and therefore our price
caps when (rare) resales happen.

Perhaps you could say more about why CPI wouldn't work for you, that could
help folks make more useful suggestions as to alternative
approaches/indexes. You might also look at building in funds and transfer
fees that contribute to affordability for new buyers, so that resources are
available to cover costs that grow over time, to preserve affordability.

You're likely to get the most relevant answers from CLTs that are engaging
this issue all the time, and have found different solutions in different
jurisdictions. The national Community Land Trust network is part of
Grounded Solutions, and they (as well as networks in OR) might have some
good examples for you:
https://groundedsolutions.org

Raines

PS My wife Betsy Morris and I will be spending two nights in Portland on
our train journey to the Cohousing Summit in Seattle next month, perhaps we
could meet with your group and learn more about it and share some of what
we've learned from living in two communities and visiting 137 US cohousing
neighborhoods, as well as some neurodiverse communities like Camp Hill
communities and Solheimar in Iceland. If anyone from your group can make it
to the Summit and related tours, I'd highly recommend participation, to
meet more folks and get more questions answered. If you do come up by
Friday evening (recommended to avoid a long Saturday-early commute), I'll
be co-hosting a pre-Summit reception on Capitol Hill that evening, and
you'd be most welcome there. Summit info:
https://www.cohousing.org/seattle2026/

On Fri, Apr 17, 2026 at 12:48 PM Kavana Tree Bressen <
kavana [at] effectivecollective.net> wrote:

> Hi Elissa,
>
> I have experience with this, and would be happy to talk with you
> further.  I helped start a small limited equity co-op here that's still
> going (one house with 9 bedrooms), and more recently was employed by a
> local nonprofit launching a large affordable housing LEC project (70
> units).  While neither of those were on a cohousing model, i've also
> worked with dozens of cohousing groups on governance and group process.
> Althought some LEC projects are tied to scales such as CPI, others set
> their own interest rate internally--the model is reasonably flexible,
> which allows projects to choose which option best meets their needs.
> The only cohousing project i can think of offhand that uses the LEC
> structure is Berkeley Cohousing; their model ties resale prices to AMI
> (Area Median Income).  Raines who's on this list lives there and i
> imagine he'll repy too.
>
> I see your area code is 503, are you located in Portland/Oregon? I'm in
> Eugene (aka Chanchifin), and recently attended a meeting of many
> different reps interested in seeing more co-ops happen, convened by
> Portland city government.  So if you're in this geographic area, i can
> probably help connect you with local resources.  I'd be happy to talk
> further off-list.
>
> Cheers,
>
> --Kavana
>
> On 4/16/2026 10:12 AM, Bloom! A WeBUILT Community via Cohousing-L wrote:
> > Hi everyone - I’ve been a member of cohousing for a year but just joined
> this list.  We are building a community of 18 units for adults with I/DD
> disabilities.  We want to use a limited equity model for resale purposes in
> order to keep the community affordable and sustainable and at the same time
> allow our owners to gain some appreciation in value over time.
> >
> > I have been searching high and low for a model/index/anything used by
> others to do that.  So far no one has one and only suggests using something
> like CPI - which will not work.  Anyone use this model and are willing to
> share?
> >
> > Thanks so much.
> >
> >
> > Elissa M. Ryan Morris, Manager
> > Bloom! A WeBUILT Community, LLC
> > 503-319-9078
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > _________________________________________________________________
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> >
> >
>
> --
> ---------------------------------------------------------------
> Kavana Tree Bressen
>
> Email checked weekdays only
> Website:  www.effectivecollective.net
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> Phone: 541-343-3855 (landline)
>
>
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