For episode forty-eight, I spoke with Sarah Wells who is a partner in the real estate agency Live Work Denver which specializes in co-buying real estate which is simply a way to buy homes with other people. Sarah is one of the founders of the Queen City Cooperative and is the Board Chair for the Boulder Housing Coalition which is a non-profit that develops affordable rental cooperatives. Sarah and I talked about co-buying as a way for more people to be able to build equity in their home in a housing market gone mad, speed-dating for finding co-buyers, and the value of living in community.
Earlier this year I posted a blog article where I estimated that the number of empty bedrooms in Boulder is approximately 30,000 using census data. Recently Boulder city council updated the occupancy restrictions which could potentially make it easier to make better use of those empty bedrooms. I think now is a great time to pivot from occupancy reform to thinking about vacancy reform. This episode is the second in a series that addresses the need to make better use of our available housing stock and practical strategies for doing so. Please see episode 46 with Annamarie Pluhar for the first episode in this series. I hope you enjoy this conversation with Sarah Wells.