Cohousing neighbor changes

Jonathon's new house dance

Our neighbors Kate and Jonathon moved out of the cohousing. Cohousing can be strucutred a few ways, legally, and the style that Mariposa Grove uses is a landtrust with 99-year leases for the condos (or actually, the soon-to-be-condos). This creates "permanently" affordable housing, through capping the equity of the units.

Which is great, if your goal is to stabilize your monthly home expenses. Not so great if you want to play in the speculative real estate market. Some folks would say that breaking the chain of real estate speculation would go a long way towards solving many of the problems that seem intractable in our urban/susurban areas.

Kate and Jonathon discovered they could afford a regular mortgage. They found a nice little place nearby and bought it, so they are still neighbors. The house is wonderfully updated, and the backyard wonderfully raw; plenty of room for chickens, fruit trees, an artist studio /slash/ guest cottage.

Kate, Jon, congratulations! I think it's very exciting to see more and more yards get to be places of connection with the earth, the seasons, with food and life. Best wishes to you in this venture!