Mr. Moderate

If this dream ever does come to pass, I can only hope that it would be successful and that communities like I’m describing here would pop up all over our nation, if not the world. Now, President Bush keeps talking about fostering an “ownership society,” but as I’ve shown previously, actual home ownership is no longer affordable for first-time buyers. Also, there is tremendous overhead involved in moving around when you own a home, and some people have jobs that seem to keep them moving. For them, renting has always been the preferred mode of home residence. It keeps the amount of “stuff” you carry around down through the simple force of economics (the high cost of moving). If you do not own a home, there is no need to market the home, engage a real estate sales person, pay huge commissions and fees, and so forth.

What I envision for this community is something like a full-time timeshare (I know, its oxymoronic; but its the only way I can convey the idea I’m thinking of, which doesn’t really exist yet). Most of the furniture for each unit is owned in common by the community, as is the real estate itself. So, the idea here is that we do not have any “renters” at all. We have people who are accepted into our community and who are expected to remain members of our community “for life,” and if they choose to move, we expect them to move to a different location of our community through a transferable ownership interest.

The residents are expected to supply their own personal belongings, which should be fairly minimal in size. Remember, kitchens and living room areas are part of the shared property, and I would expect that most of the bedroom furniture would also be supplied with the unit as it would be specially designed for the best use of limited space. From a furniture standpoint, many people would want to choose their own mattress and “comfortable chair” for their bedroom area. Some consideration should be given to designing the standard bedroom floorplan and furniture to accommodate any reasonable desires of this sort (such as the oddball who wants a water bed). And of course, for the people who have nothing, the community can have a ready supply of basic things (mattress, chair, computer/TV, etc.).

When it comes time for somebody to move, they take their personal belongings (which would generally be smaller than an average person’s due to shared libraries of books, music, videos, electronic games, etc.), and the few items of furniture they were personally attached to (mattress, chair, etc.), and moved to a new community of the same sort where they would fit right in. And through an inter-community financial transaction, their ownership interest and credit union account would be transferred between the two communities as well. That is what I mean by transferable ownership that is like a full-time timeshare.