I’m taking a look this week at one way into the market for people who otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford it. In the first three months of this year, about 77 percent of the households in the county were in that boat, according to the California Association of Realtors affordability index.
So the apparent solution I’ve been hearing a lot about lately is this: Friends or co-workers get together in a small group, get a mortgage and purchase a home together.
Barratt American offers this on its Aragon attached home complex in downtown La Mesa, terming the idea “mingles units.”
Here’s a real estate site in New Zealand with some pragmatic questions to ask before embarking on the co-buying adventure.
I can add one: Are you planning to use the family room to give drum lessons to the neighbor kids?
Lifestyle differences can be more easily forgotten in a one-year or six-month lease scenario than in a what-color-should-we-paint-the-front-door-of-our-co-owned-house scenario, I’d expect.
But what’s your take? Is this idea a good one? Do you know anyone who’s done this? Click my name below to share your thoughts. I’ll be gathering wool on this for a few days.