“Why is cohousing so expensive? Tiny houses too?”

 “Why are cohousing units so expensive?  As chair of the Membership Committee at Elderberry, I hear that a lot, despite the fact that we seem to be the least expensive community in our region of North Carolina,¹

Right now, Elderberry has our one tiny house above (325 square feet) for sale.  And we’ve heard that question again.  So, I looked up a Forbes February 26, 2024 article “How Much Does A Tiny House Cost?”² and this is what it said - “On average, a tiny home costs about $50,000...The cost you’ll end up paying for tiny homes depends on the size, quality and details of the house you choose…. a custom tiny house with custom features and build-ins can easily cost as much as $100,000 or more.” 

Now, Elderberry’s tiny house is selling for $165K (its appraised value; and it definitely fits the custom features mentioned above).  But, where do the extra costs come from in this house and in cohousing units in general?

In cohousing, as in condos, planned communities, HOAs, etc. homeowners often jointly own community property as well,  Therefore, that share of the entire property is added to the cost of each house.  But cohousing really does share some additional, very special features.

We had some fun at Elderberry brainstorming the amenities included with our tiny house and you can apply many of these to homes in other cohousing communities. 

First of all, it’s a permanent house – custom-designed with special environmental and accessibility features, sturdily built on a foundation on a lot that you own – not by developers who were interested in making a quick buck, but by fellow community members who plan to live here as neighbors for a long time.  And these same folks designed, and continue to maintain, a ton of community features around their homes and this particular tiny home.

Here’s the fun part – a list of things you DO NOT NEED in your home here because the community has already provided them in the common house (which in this case is only about 33 steps from the door of our tiny home).

·         Washers & dryers

·         Guest bedroom and bath

·         A great big kitchen. full of every pot, pan, utensil, dish and appliance you could need (including shared freezer space)

·         Big tables and a bunch of chairs in case your relatives/friends decide to party with you!

·         Exercise equipment

·         A comfy seating area by the woodstove, as well as a large-screen TV to share movies and broadcasts

·         Craft space, with a sewing machine

And there’s more –

·         Dog park with lots of room to run and play

·         Plenty of space to garden

 ·         Trail system (we are lucky enough that Potluck Farm community next door shares their miles of wooded trails with us.  And, many communities are also situated in or near beautiful natural settings)

·         Lawn chairs, swing, picnic tables, grills and fire pit (the light brown house in the center of this photo is our tiny house)

·         Woodshop and a machine shop with every manner of tool, bolt/screw/or whatsit you could ever need

·         Tool barn and garden shed with more equipment than a hardware store – think ten wheelbarrows and seven weedwhackers and ladders of every size!

 ·         Solar panels

Do these things add to the value and therefore the cost of the house?  Of course!  But the other cool thing about cohousing is that there’s not some manager or realtor who has no concern for whether I personally can afford to live here.  Instead, here (and other cohousing communities) my neighbors are consistently trying to keep costs down for all of us.

And last there are the intangible things to balance costs.  This mostly consists of fellow members who—

·         Can help you learn how to use all the things above and maybe even keep you from having to hire someone.

 

·         Will share what they have with you (from a pint of half-&-half to a ride to the airport)

·         Will help you live a healthier life – eating, exercising, gardening, working together and laughing

·         Give you a reason to come out and play – for free!

Okay, I know that if you’re interested in cohousing, you are looking for more than an inexpensive kit house to just plop down somewhere,  but I just wanted to give you a perspective on why cohousing does cost more and what that money buys you.  Come visit³ Elderberry’s tiny house or any other cohousing community and see what I mean.  

¹ Elderberry is 20 minutes north of Durham; and our region has at least 10 cohousing communities.

²  https://www.forbes.com/home-improvement/contractor/tiny-house-cost/#:~:text=On%20average%2C%20a%20tiny%20home,researching%20common%20tiny%20house%20costs

³If you’d like to visit, just e-mail me (Karolyn) at richard.mangeot@usa.net and definitely look at https://www.elderberrycohousing.com/homes-available.html