CoHousing: The Journal of the CoHousing Network

Don Lindemann, editor. Quarterly magazine. The CoHousing Network, P.O. Box 2584, Berkeley, CA 94702; 510/486-2656. Subscription rates range from $20 to $75/year.

While the books are important for getting a comprehensive overview, the magazine is the easiest way to keep up with developments, both regionally and nationally. Articles by people in the cohousing trenches offer new and evolving ideas about issues concerning cohousing design, financing, marketing, group decision-making, and ownership structures. An article in the Spring 1997 issue, for example, addresses the issue of house design—focusing on the tension between the cost savings of uniform design and the desire of individuals for custom-designed spaces.

Along with the national coverage, each magazine contains a four-page regional insert with details on the progress of cohousing efforts in a particular North American region. (For the $75 subscription rate, you can receive all eight regional inserts with each issue.)

CoHousing magazine also carries ads, which offer professionals an excellent forum to advertise their services, and give communities a way to recruit members nationally. The ads also reveal that some communities have already been around long enough that individual houses are coming up for sale by departing members.