Cohousing can be a lab for trying out the latest innovations to help us live lighter on the planet. The goal of this year’s National Cohousing Conference was ambitious – building resilient, sustainable communities – yet I felt a universal reaching; so many of us wanting desperately to learn how to be even more climate... Read More

We hear advice on how to live “green” tossed around a lot these days. “Sustainability” is equated with so many different products and actions, it’s hard to wade through the noise to figure out what’s most doable, and has an impact that truly matters in our communities. It can be a challenge to separate green-washing... Read More

Cohousing Friends — Coho Cost of Living Data Solicitation. Back in November, we announced that the Cohousing Research Network (CRN) and CohoUS are collaborating on a “cost of living in cohousing” research project. Since then, we’ve received useful and interesting responses from more than a dozen communities. Who knew, for instance, that annual per-unit dues... Read More

Approximately seventy-five cohousers, researchers, aspiring cohousers, and graduate students attended a symposium on elder cohousing research in Wilmington, North Carolina, on October 27, sponsored by the College of Health and Human Services of the University of North Carolina Wilmington, and AARP. Among the presenters were Alice Alexander, Executive Director of the Cohousing Association of the...

I echo Jenny Godwin’s sentiments in her Social Portfolio blog in taking stock of our connections. Outside of cohousing, we live in a culture that values materialism and wealth, with social ties taking a back seat. This despite evidence that “social capital” is a significant factor in health and happiness – more even than eating... Read More

Have you ever felt a “feeling” of loneliness that seems physical and tangible? Similar to the feeling of hunger, it seems the loneliness feeling serves an evolutionary need: We feel hungry so that we eat and don’t die. Likewise, we physically feel lonely so that we make connections with each other and we can collectively... Read More

No surprise, but always nice to see data backing up what those living in cohousing communities are already intimately aware of. Researchers asked, what makes for happy homeowners? Not size or price, actually. It’s about the community. “It turns out that what really matters is the extent to which our houses facilitate positive social connections,”... Read More

Greetings from Cohousing Research Network (CRN)! We are excited to share with you our National Conference presentation of the results from the 2012 National Survey of Cohousing Residents. https://www.cohousing.org/2015/docs/research This was a high leverage research project that used a single survey to answer a myriad of research questions devised by a highly interdisciplinary team of... Read More

Have you ever been asked a cohousing-related question and wished you had a few nicely succinct, number-based facts to support your answer? No, stats aren’t everything and measuring cohousing’s success certainly has its deepest roots in the community-feel. But numbers don’t hurt, and they certainly can offer a hand when evaluating and presenting on the... Read More