> Cooperative ownership is fantastic, and a great cure
> for the ails of capitalism.
+$0.02. I served several years on a housing co-op board for a 156 unit urban high-rise (including as treasurer) and cooperative ownership is itself not a cure all, only the composition of the "ownership" is different. The shareholders (tenants) pool their investment, true, and then go on to create a corporate structure, elect a board, draw up rules and enforce them, assign duties, levy fees and payments, hire staff, contract, etc. It's a fairly ordinary corporation in most respects. The co-op is the landlord and it's quite a business to run even when things are going well and everyone pulls in the same direction and individuals don't cause each other trouble. When things go wrong (as they always do) or shareholders disagree (as they always do) or people behave badly (as they always do), it's exceedingly challenging and because it's a mix of personal and business there are some tough decisions and terrible hard feelings.
I agree capital tends to avoid housing co-ops because they smell funny and act differently and the laws around them are a mess. As a result, it's harder to assess the risk for a co-op than other businesses and more complicated to borrow, contract, etc.
It's totally possible to do at smaller scale; I've known of some micro co-ops of just one or two houses that have been quite successful. The smaller scale minimizes certain kinds of headaches..
I agree capital tends to avoid housing co-ops because they smell funny and act differently and the laws around them are a mess. As a result, it's harder to assess the risk for a co-op than other businesses and more complicated to borrow, contract, etc.