possible very tiny silver lining?

[kahuna_burger]

As most of you probably know, I'm a great big repressed hippy who dreams of co-housing but lives in a single family with only one somewhat close relationship with a neighbor (who is across the street so we can't even do shared back yard things). So I've found myself wondering... is there any chance that the current economic meltdown might leave the

Comments

[maineshark]

I know some folks who are interested in cohousing, but most are into the "rugged individualist" thing.

[geekmom]

We looked into it before we bought our house, but it turns out that the cohousing option actually cost a lot more. So I'm guessing that's probably a no.

[geekmom]

And by "a lot more," I mean that a three bedroom one bath space cost more than twice what we spent on a larger three bedroom one bath house with a partially finished basement.

[kahuna_burger]

I've noticed that the more formal cohousing communities do tend to be quite expensive - I think it's because they are often new construction development projects. On the other hand buying a 4 family with 2 other families (with the other space for development into shared space) is gonna be less expensive than all 3 families buying the same amount of single family house, in my experience. And if such a setup comes with a built in babysitting coop and joint bulk purchasing, the overall savings should theoretically be greater.

[geekmom]

That's true, and most of them are new construction. The problem with a less formal arrangement is that there's a lot of room for abuse. What do you do if one of those three families isn't pulling their weight or is doing something that is clearly a health danger to the other two families? If you buy into a formal cohousing arrangement, most likely they've got steps in place for worst-case scenarios and legal definitions and protections for the space you purchased. (Or I'd run away. Fast.)

[teddywolf]

I'm personally partial to the notion of cohousing. I miss the concept of a Neighborhood.

Some sort of Roots For The Rootless site might help.

I've checked out cohousing in a couple of places, and they are either far away or don't have enough room for the whole family for us. I still long for it.