Discovering Cooperative Living in the San Francisco Bay Area

I first heard about cooperative housing when I attended UC Berkeley. The University Students Coop Association has a collection of houses around the campus that are highly coveted by students. There are usually a few openings in these houses each year and they’re quickly filled up. The reason is that they usually had cheaper rent and included food. When someone gets into a coop they like they usually don’t leave for the remainder of their college lives. I actually applied for a couple coops but I did not end up living in one because someone always got in before me. The student coops have a fairly long history in Berkeley and many students went on to found newer coops.

Currently the hubby and I rent an unit in a coop complex. Our landlord is technically the owner of our apartment. The difference between owning a coop apartment and owning a condo is that the coop is structured like a non-profit corporation and each owner owns a share of the corporation. That means they don’t really own the real estate and they pay monthly dues to the corporation for maintenance costs, insurance, and property taxes. What my hubby really liked about the place is that they had a list of rules of conduct. For example, “no person of immoral character may be allowed on the premises” and “no loud noise after 9pm”. We also like the fact that most of our neighbors have a vested interest in keeping the property nicely maintained. So far we enjoy it very much. All the neighbors are quite friendly and the pool and common areas are immaculate and welcoming. It’s also a lot quieter than a normal apartment building so the hubby is sometimes afraid that he’s making too much noise.

I read that cooperative apartments are much more prevalent in New York City and it isn’t as common here in the Bay Area. Coops are usually cheaper than most apartments and condominiums and it seems that the Bay Area should have more of them as an affordable housing option. Buying into a coop isn’t as easy as buying a condo because the coop board of directors can reject a potential buyer based on character and other factors such as the ability to pay the coop fees. Since a coop share is technically not real estate and there are sometimes price limits to reselling the share. For these reasons, coops are not very attractive to house flippers and their prices rise in a reasonable fashion. The rules also make coops a better place to live because at least you know that your neighbors have been pre-screened.

I do recommend cooperative housing over apartments managed by faceless companies because your neighbors are the owners. There is definitely a sense of community when you live in a coop because it is set up to be a shared living space. Some coops grow their own vegetables and bulk buy groceries to share and also maintain the properties themselves. My coop doesn’t do those things but we do share a funny little woodshop, low cost laundry room, and a great pool. The downside is that since coops are not very common in the Bay Area you really need to work on finding one with an opening. I think the hubby and I got lucky since there was only one opening in our coop and we only got it because the person who applied before us backed out.

The following are some places you can start looking for coops:

1. Craigslist — Sometimes coop listings come up and you need to respond quickly

2. California Association of Housing Cooperatives — No website, but the association’s mission is mostly to provide education to the board of directors of coops in the SF Bay Area. The contact information is:
676 Fulton Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
phone: (415) 922-8911
fax: (415) 922-3431

3. University Students’ Cooperative Association — Provides coop housing for students of UC Berkeley. So if you happen to be going there, you should definitely check it out.

4. San Francisco Bay Area Cooperative Housing Directory – This is a list of coops, but the information isn’t complete. Some coops list their rent and opening schedule on this page. It’s worth checking out.

5. National Association of Housing Cooperatives – This is a national site, but it’s full of great information on what coops are and how you can get into one.

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