Cohousing For Whom? Survey Evidence to Support the Diffusion of Socially and Spatially Integrated Housing in the United States

Abstract

Cohousing is a resident-led neighborhood development model that clusters private dwelling units around collectively owned and managed spaces, with potential to address long-term social and environmental challenges in American metropolitan regions. To date, however, the cohousing model has been slow to diffuse beyond a demographically narrow following. This limited following may signal to policymakers that cohousing is an unappealing housing model, and therefore an impractical policy objective. Drawing from a survey of 1,000 American residents, the results of a multivariate regression model suggest that (a) many of the characteristics of the current resident population of cohousing in the United States have no statistical association with the individuals who indicate interest in cohousing nationwide; (b) other characteristics serve as better predictors of interest in cohousing; and therefore (c) the slow diffusion of cohousing is likely the consequence of inaccessibility rather than low appeal. Overcoming these challenges demands shifts in policy.

Keywords:

• Cohousing
• housing production
• neighborhood design
• sustainable communities
• public opinion polling

Notes

1. Built for sale means that the physical house and land beneath the house were sold as a single package to a future inhabitant. By contrast, contractor-built homes and self-built homes involve an individual building a home on their own land, with the intention to live in it themselves.

2. Information on survey methodology is detailed in (Sanguinetti, 2015).

3. As of this writing, established communities exist in the following states/districts: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, District of Columbia, Georgia, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin.

4. Information on CCES and access to common content can be found here: https://cces.gov.harvard.edu/ (last accessed June 29, 2017).

5. The CCES sample offers a satisfactory representation of the U.S. total population. According to the 2015 American Community Survey (5-year estimates), approximately 32.3% of households had children under 18; approximately 63.9% of households lived in owner-occupied structures; 73.1% of the population was white/Caucasian; 49% of the population was male; and the median family income was $75,590.