Many alternatives become possible by bringing together a variety of people who cooperate together.  (Note: the dollar amounts on this page are for illustration only. Homes can be built for far less or far more money.)

Sharing a home

Some people may want to share a home with another family (or another couple or several people.) By working together according to each person's skills many things can be accomplished. One person or couple could work the land, and the other could work in the city to quickly pay off a mortgage. This works especially well when one person (or couple) can earn a lot of money but doesn’t have any real skills for gardening or construction, and the others have some of those skills but can’t make a lot of money.

If two couples share a $60,000 home the cost of housing for each couple would be only $30,000. One couple could establish the gardening on the 1 acre of land, and the other couple could work in the city to pay a mortgage.

Six individual adults sharing a home would cost each of them only $12,000 for the land and a $60,000 house.  The 1 acre of land can provide food for six people and more can be incorporated in the design if it is allowed within that particular village and community. For example, there may be households in a village with only two adults, so if another household has eight adults, the carrying capacity of the land is not exceeded in that village. 

Construction Teams

There are many people who have good construction skills, and others who learn quickly. There are huge advantages to building homes ourselves, and many people who start similar communities or build using alternate styles of construction do it themselves.

Someone who has money for construction materials can partner with someone who can provide construction labor, and together build two homes. This can also be done on a larger scale by starting a community construction team, and each person on the team will get a house in exchange for a number of months of construction time.

Each person on the team must have a financial sponsor, or partner, who will pay for the materials for both their houses. Or a person on the team can also use their own funds for materials for their house, without having a financial partner. Since the cost of materials on an $80,000 house is roughly half, the financial partner would pay $80,000 for materials for two houses. The construction partner would work for a specified number of months on the construction team, and during that time the construction team would have completed those two houses, along with other ones. If the construction type is a house that costs less than $80,000 then the construction partner could work an appropriate amount of time.

Bartering a Home in exchange for Establishing Crops

With this scenario, individuals who have the money can pay outright for another home for a second person (or family or group of people).  The second family would immediately occupy the second house, but not take full ownership for a maximum of 3 years. 

An individual (or family or group) who paid $160,000 for two houses would select the recipients or occupants of the second house. The second person (or family or group) would work both associated tracts of land in exchange for housing, and after a certain amount of time the second person would then own the second house. The maximum length of time allowed before the second person takes full ownership should be three years.  If both parties agree, it can be less than three years.

The occupant(s) of the second house would have the voting rights for that share in the cooperative upon entering into the agreement. (The second person must also have purchased or been given the land shares for that tract.) The person paying for both houses can make this arrangement with one other person (or family or group), thus temporarily holding two houses maximum, while having voting rights for one. If there is a desire to temporarily hold more than two houses in this way, any villages involved  must be in full agreement and the community must also allow such arrangements. 

Some of the good points with this scenario are that people who could not afford homes can immediately get one by committing to work the land for a maximum of 3 years, and those who have money but are not ready to garden in the beginning (they might be working in the city to pay a mortgage they took out) will have their gardens nicely established for them. It also allows for organic farming to start quickly.

If the original owner of the two homes is wealthy and does not need to continue working in the city, then he or she can commit to some other service within the community, having essentially hired a gardener for 3 years (maximum). During this period the first family should learn from the gardener so that they can take care of their own tract after 3 years.  Of course, the first owner might be a teacher in the school, or a doctor for the whole community, and the others in the village may agree to farm his or her tract on a more permanent basis in exchange for services.

These are only a few of the possibilities we can achieve by working together. When taken in combination, the options become enormous.

All such working arrangements would not be private affairs since they can impact all the members of a village - and sometimes the whole community - in everyone's cooperative endeavors. The parameters for all such arrangements must be finalized by the members, and anyone entering into such agreements should have the full agreement of their respective villages.

Other costs

Each community will need some money to pay taxes, insurance, and perhaps some utility bills, as well as for purchasing food and everything else needed for those living on the property for the first few years. We also need money to start the agriculture. Getting started does take a lot of money - but not nearly as much as becoming established in a city if we do it right.

After one or two growing seasons the community should have sufficient produce to noticeably lower food costs.  Communities may also have some cash flow from the sale of excess produce. Later on we expect some cash flow from tours, retreats and education.

The community members can begin bartering with one another from the very beginning. By establishing a system of barter the community can turn that barter into currency as needed, which can be used to pay taxes and other costs where currency is needed. This is more fully explained in the page on Community Economics.

Government grants and subsidies

Communities can apply for various government and private grants and low-cost long-term loans. This includes money for housing as well as money for agriculture. Of course there is always red tape, more restrictions, and extra work involved with government or private funding. For example, in some cases a commercial builder is required.

More research is needed to determine the pros and cons of all types of government involvement. There is considerable funding available for agriculture, housing, energy production, and many other areas. Anyone interested in helping with this should please sign up for the Government Resources Team on the Planning Teams page.

Building Costs and Techniques

We must consider using less expensive construction techniques and doing the construction ourselves.  Less expensive materials does not necessarily mean lower quality construction, and in many cases may mean much higher quality. Please see the page on Shelter for more information.

Here are some advantages:

· Builds community spirit and cooperation

· Can cost far less for materials than conventional wood framed construction

· Helps us become less dependent upon modern society

· Gives invaluable experience for later construction of larger community buildings

· Allows us to build using sustainable techniques

· Greatly reduces the need for heating and cooling

· Homes are much higher quality than conventional wood framed housing

There are many earthen construction techniques such as Rammed Earth, Cob, Compressed Earth Block and others (see Shelter page.) Some of these methods are more labor-intensive than others. Building using these techniques will generally require a concrete foundation and some type of wood-framed roof, so using these construction types primarily impacts the cost of materials for the walls.

Future home values

The market value of homes generally increases in the long term.  Therefore real estate is known to be both a great investment and a hedge against inflation. The appraised value of the homes we build will most likely be far less than the value we would place on them, or the value to another person desiring to live in such a community, because it is the lifestyle and the association that mean the most to us. Otherwise we could simply build our own house in the country. Therefore appraising such homes is difficult, although appraised values will be much less volatile than housing in a city.

The value of the land to us may also be much different than the market value of the crops or the size of the land.  Aside from time spent in construction, it is not easy to value time spent on establishing a thriving acre of garden or crop land. Therefore we advise that communities establish some regulations as part of the Master Plan or Community Constitution rules to prevent speculation and buying and selling of land. Rules can be in the form of maximum appreciation (for example no more than 150 percent of original cost) or in the form of time requirements (for example no sales for 5 years after purchase) or any other methods to help keep communities stable and help keep out people with financial motives.

The ever-increasing cost of everything in modern society is based on the ever-decreasing value of paper currency. The US dollar is worth around four cents compared to its value in 1913. There is little point in attempting to place a monetary value on things that are ultimately far more valuable than paper money.

Alternative Methods of Dealing with Mortgages

Mortgage payments can also be structured in a number of ways.  In a cooperative structure, if a person has $10,000 as a down payment on a $50,000 home mortgage, the cooperative can take a 20 year mortgage with $3000 down and make the first 18 months of payments using the remaining $7,000. This allows the householder time to become established on the land before any further payments are required. This in turn helps the community to develop much more quickly. Conversely the extra $7,000 can immediately be paid on the principle, payments could then be made at the normal rate and a 20 year loan would thus be paid for in about 15 years. While this particular time frame is too long, communities can consider various alternative ways of dealing with mortgages where they are required. 

Although we want to avoid taking on debt, the monthly payments on $40,000 for 20 years at 6% is only $286. There are many ways to come up with such a small amount of money each month, especially if other costs such as food and utilities can be reduced to practically nothing. Someone could work one or two days a week in the city. And for those who want to partner with someone to work the land while they work full-time in the city to pay off a mortgage quickly, paying $1500 extra each month on such a mortgage pays it off in 2 years and saves $26,000 in interest. Paying $500 extra per month pays it off in 5 years and saves $22,000 in interest.

The development of cottage industries and education is one of the best ways to begin generating income. Such activities are in line with the principles of the community and are preferred over commuting to work in the city. 

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