19th
Hotbeds for cohousing communities include Denver, Washington state, California, and New England, according to the Cohousing Association of the United States, based in Boulder, Colo.
Zev Paiss, founding executive director of the Cohousing Association, said that over the past 18 months he’s been getting more calls from developers and landowners “who are up against the wall with either a stalled project, land, or huge inventory, and looking for ways to get themselves out of it.”
While Paiss said he thinks that cohousing developments could be an opportunity for builders and landowners to sell something that they normally couldn’t, he cautions that they have to be willing to partner with the future residents.
“We’re taking advantage of the hard economy right now, and they’re poking for new ways to present what they’ve got,” said Paiss, who runs Abraham Paiss & Associates Inc., a consulting company for the cohousing industry, and is cofounder of the Elder Cohousing Network for seniors.
Between 1991 and 1995, 16 completed communities registered with the Cohousing Association of the United States; between 1996 and 2000 there were 31; and between 2001 and 2005 there were 37 more. There are 11 completed communities in Massachusetts and many more are either building, forming, or seeking a site. Not all have registered with the Cohousing Association (for a list of states visit cohousing.org/directory).