If you haven’t gotten a chance to read through the full “Report on Survey of Cohousing Communities 2011″, produced by the Cohousing Association of the United States, I wanted to share some of my favorite facts from it with you.  I’m going to post one of these facts each Monday for the next five weeks, so check back in before you settle into the office (or wherever you happen to be Monday mornings if you’re lucky enough to not be in an office!)

Todays Fact:  Cohousing is Financially Stable and Predictable:

• In the survey, only 13% of communities reported any of their units in foreclosure – indicating exceptional financial stability of cohousing communities

• Nearly 90% indicated their cohousing property is valued higher (43%) or about the same (46%) as local real estate.  Here is what that bell curve looks like:

Pull that one out at your next information session!!

Happy Monday Morning!

Last week Baltimore City Council killed efforts to provide tax breaks to urban farmers – in their words setting a precedent of stopping tax breaks to developers, which can be costly to the city in a number of ways.  But does this also set another precendent, one of limiting government support for urban farming?  Do other cities support it?  Have cohousing communities who engage in urban farming recieve any tax breaks?

The California Tax Credit Allocation Committee (CTCAC) lists community gardening as one of ten green elements developers can use to apply for tax breaks with sustainable building.**

And in Wisconsin, developers own much of the agricultural land in urban areas.  The average tax break these developers recieve is $3,516.**

So there is a precedent.  The next steps are spreading it and seeing how cohousers can take advantage of such breaks.  I invite any input from those who have been successful on this or related successes!  You can read more from the Baltimore Sun about the recent bill here:

A City Council committee on Tuesday killed a bill to grant tax breaks to nonprofit urban farmers after the mayor’s office said it would set a bad precedent.

The opposition by the administration of Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake outraged Councilwoman Mary Pat Clarke, a sponsor of the measure.

“I know we give tax breaks to well-to-do developers,” Clarke said, her voice rising, after learning that the city’s finance department had urged her colleagues to vote against the bill. Urban farmers, she said, “aren’t wealthy. They’re not well-heeled. They don’t hang out and sit with their suits at tables and talk about how they’ll help the city. They just do it.” … click here for more

Posted by: Rebecca

Cohousingblog Editor, Cohousing Collaborative 

Lake/Flato Architects "Porches" Series

Lake/Flato Architects combine modular systems with custom designed “add-ons” such as decks, porches, breezeways, carports and more — all called “porches” — to reduce costs.   The finished product is all LEED certified for energy efficiency.  Using modular systems reduces construction time.  Custom designing the add-ons results in a look that is specific to the site so the finished homes don’t have to have that  cookie cutter look!

Is this an idea you can use to reduce the cost of building your cohousing community?   Read more about this system:   http://ow.ly/

Submitted by  Ann Zabaldo, Principal Partner, Cohousing Collaborative, LLC

The Census Bureau predicts that the U.S. population will increase from 311 million today to 423 million by 2050, keeping the United States the third-largest nation by population behind India (expected to grow to 1.66 billion) and China (1.3 billion).

With more than 110 million more Americans needing housing, how will the population growth impact the local, and national, real estate market? Local real estate professionals had a variety of views…

Read More:  http://www.sungazette.net/articles/2011/07/18/arlington/news/nw75ma.txt

PS – Summer Traditions in Cohousing Contest, enter in post below!

Posted by Rebecca

Some of the grammar sounds a bit funny, but this article announces the approval of a 20 home cohousing community, the first of its kind in the UK.  The £3m project aims to provide low-impact, affordable living (LILAC – Low-impact-living Affordable Community).

(It also has the number of US cohousing communities off by about 60!)

Mr Chatterton said LILAC’s advantages included responding to the housing crisis, creating safe neighbourhoods and increasing resident participation and helping the environment…

Built using a strawbale and engineered timber system called Modcell, parts of the houses will be put together off site and the straw structure will save 50 tonnes of CO2 over each building’s lifespan…

Read the full article:  Propertyweek.com

Posted by Rebecca

Intro to Cohousing Development – Presentation: http://www.scribd.com/doc/59022770/Intro-to-Cohousing-Development

Made by Cohousing Collaborative