Questions, answered plainly

Private homes that people own outright, arranged around shared land and shared buildings that the households own together and run themselves. At Green Grove that means nine houses on five acres, plus a Common House, a workshop, gardens, an orchard and a parking structure held in common.

You own your house. You do not share income, meals, childcare or beliefs with anybody.

For the movement-wide version rather than ours, the National CoHousing Alliance is the sector body; Green Grove is a member.

No. The house is listed on RMLS and anyone can buy it. There is no committee, no interview and no application.

“Membership” is a separate process that residents go through after moving in. It is expected of everyone who lives here and it does carry practical weight — a resident who hasn’t completed it doesn’t get access to some shared spaces, the Common House among them. But it is not a condition of purchase and it cannot be required of anyone.

No. Every household owns its own detached home with its own full kitchen, its own laundry and its own front door. People cook at home. Finances are separate. There is no shared ideology and no obligation to socialise.

What is shared is property and its upkeep — the land, the common buildings, the tools — and the work of looking after all of it.

Six hours of workshare a month, per adult rather than per household. Last year the community average came out at 6.89 hours.

It is not all physical work. Taking minutes, prepping an agenda, or doing the research a circle needs before it can decide all count. Hours bank up to twenty-four so you can travel, new residents get their first three months off, and anything licensed, unsafe or genuinely miserable is hired out.

The policy says explicitly that where illness or disability makes physical tasks hard, the community will find appropriate tasks instead — administrative, technical or organisational work all qualify. Unexpected personal or family illness exempts a resident for up to three months, and residents can donate banked hours to a neighbor in hardship.

By sociocracy. Not by consensus, and not by majority vote — this is the detail most often reported wrong about the community.

The work is split among circles, each with a stated purpose and the authority to act on it. A circle decides by consent: the question is not “is this what you would have picked?” but “is this good enough for now, and safe enough to try?” Anyone can object, but an objection has to be a reason the proposal would stop the circle doing its work — preferring something else isn’t enough. Decisions get revisited.

Insurance and reserves. Water, trash, recycling and sewer for every house, plus electricity and internet for the common buildings. Professional landscaping, arborists and repairs. Shared tools — mowers, the snowblower, garden equipment. Supplies for community events, and the community’s memberships in CoHo US and Sociocracy For All.

Reserves are set by a professional study that is updated annually, with a community trust helping keep them funded.

There are no personal garages at Green Grove. Instead there is one detached parking structure, and every household gets an assigned covered spot in it, an EV charger at that spot, and a private 90 square foot storage unit. The roof is covered in solar panels.

Nobody parks at their own house as a matter of course — people pull up to unload groceries or kids and then park. There is also pull-out parking beside the houses and plenty of extra room for second cars and visitors.

Yes, but with limits. Rentals are capped at one year and the renter has to be community-approved. Renting is not restricted to family.

This is not an investment property. The rules leave an owner room to travel for a year without selling, and that is what they are for.

As much as you want. The house is detached, sits above the pathway, and has its own porch, kitchen, laundry and yard. Residents have their own routines, their own friendships and their own boundaries.

The community’s own framing is that it aims to balance the privacy and autonomy of member households with the connection that makes cohousing work. Social events are optional. Stewardship of the property is shared.

No. There is a potluck on the first Saturday of every month and a weekly Happy Hour, and both are come-if-you-like. There is no dinner rota.

Cooking happens in the houses — every home has a full kitchen with an induction range. The Common House kitchen is small and is used for serving what people carry over, not for communal cooking.

Seventeen adults between 30 and 75, and five children between six months and eleven years, across nine households. Three dogs in two households; two households have cats.

It is genuinely multigenerational — retirees, couples and families with young kids all live on the same loop.

Yours: the house, everything in it, your assigned parking spot and your 90 square foot storage unit.

Shared: the Common House with its three guest rooms, art studio and library; the workshop and the long shed with its tools, ladders, mowers and saws; canoes, kayaks and bikes; the main garden, the orchard, the berry patches and the chickens; the croquet lawn, the village green and the gazebo; gym equipment in the detached garage; the solar array and the rainwater catchment.

Forest Grove, Oregon, at the western edge of the Portland metro area and home to Pacific University. The property sits where town meets farmland.

Thatcher Park is 0.6 miles away, about five minutes on a bike. Downtown Forest Grove is 2.75 miles, about fifteen minutes. The first quarter mile from the entrance runs along Thatcher Road before the sidewalk starts.

Yes. The home is listed on RMLS through Think Portland and cooperating agents are welcome. Anything a client asks that this site doesn’t answer — reserve figures, the bylaws, the workshare policy, the resale process — can be provided on request.

Yes. The bylaws, the workshare policy, the sustainability practices document and the community’s “Are We a Good Fit?” guide are all available on request. The community also publishes an overview of how it makes decisions at greengrovecoho.org.