Housing Trend: Co-Living, Communal Living + Co-operative Living

A Tweet about co-living the other day sparked my interest. The article My House, Our House and the  video above discuss how these three divorced women decided that instead of living alone and spending a lot of money on smaller living spaces, they could save money, build their own community and live in a much larger home.

I've written here about the trend of living in tiny houses. While many are still deciding to live in smaller spaces, there is also a trend in the other direction -- co-living.

One of the benefits of living in smaller spaces, at least in my opinion, was supposed to be that it would be more affordable. People would trade some or a lot of their living space if they would be able to spend less money on housing. Less square footage, less money right?

Not necessarily. At least here in Boston. The micro-apartments are super small and still expensive. The worst of both worlds. Except for the perfect downtown Boston location.

Strangely it's working for some according to this Curbed article. Factory 63 is renting micro-apartments in the lovely Fort Point area. The rents range from around $1,200 for 337-square-feet to $2,450 for just under 600-square-feet. 

So after reading about this rather disturbing turn for the expensive in small space city living, I was encouraged to read about the trend in co-living. Sometimes it's spelled without the hyphen as well.

Co-living or co-operative living can take many different forms. It can be unrelated people pooling their resources to live in a mansion and collaborating on different projects, like the Rainbow Mansion in Silicon Valley. It can be a 7,500-square-foot Edwardian mansion being shared by more than a dozen unrelated people in San Francisco.

It can also be generations of families living together. Sometimes in much more modest circumstances than the mansions portrayed above. The recession may have technically ended, but jobs are still scarce and wages for many are stagnant. But when people pool their resources, they can live better than on their own. Plus, there is the added benefit of having a community and being able to care for family members.

These types of living are more intentional than last minute roommates and what has been determined to be the best way for a group of individuals to live.

With the economy being what it is and as people get older, I can see co-living becoming more popular. What do you think?

Would you consider co-living? Do you know anyone who is in a co-living situation?


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