5 cohousing projects in the works in Berkeley

Two families participate in the groundbreaking of a 36-unit co-living condo in Berkeley’s Poet’s Corner. Cohousing and co-living appeal to millennials and Gen Zers priced out of traditional homeownership, as well as single mothers pooling resources and older adults downsizing to age in place. Shared childcare and nearby family and friends provide support, vibrancy, and community. A real estate developer describes a new American Dream focused on living close to people who provide social connection. Co-living includes informal shared housing and more formal intentional communities, including cohousing with individually owned units and shared spaces, along with cooperatives such as Parker Street.

"Millennials and Gen Zers who are being locked out of the real-estate market due to record-low affordability, high mortgage rates and a housing shortage, find that living with their besties or grandma and grandpa comes with the benefit of shared childcare. Single mothers are pooling their resources and forming mommunes and aging Boomers are downsizing and hoping to age in place within a vibrant community. All are drawn to the appeal of alternative co-living lifestyles, which are on the rise in Berkeley."

"“The new American Dream is to live close to your friends and family and have a rich life of support and vibrancy that that brings,” said Phil Levin, a real estate developer who founded the Oakland-based Live Near Friends in 2023, which helps buyers and their friends and/or family members purchase properties where they can live together. In 2019 Levin and his wife, Kristen Berman, created Radish in North Oakland, which demonstrated how 20 friends and nine (soon to be 10) children could live in 10 homes."

"“A generation of people wants to design social support into the way we live,” Levin said. “Living next door to a friend or family member is one of the best ways to do that.” Co-living is a broad term that refers to a number of shared household models, which in Berkeley has historically been fueled by the informal sharing of shared houses and apartments by university students and several student coops."

"More formal arrangements are often called intentional communities and include Berkeley's oldest cohousing community, Berkeley Cohousing, a condominium, with individually owned units and some shared spaces. The city also boasts a handful of cooperatives, like Parker Street, which "

Read at www.berkeleyside.org