What they have in common, however, is the purpose of providing housing for persons with common or shared needs. Limited equity housing cooperative s provide affordable housing and ownership opportunities for low and moderate income households. Share prices in these cooperative are usually low, and member households may not own more than one share. To further preserve affordability and prevent speculative resale, price restrictions are placed on the sale of shares. In market rate or stock cooperatives, individual members arrange private financing of share purchases.
Members can own more than one share and rent out the additional units for a profit.
When a member moves out, the share is sold to a new member for its full value at market prices. In mobile home park cooperatives, the trailers are owned privately, while the rest of the land and facilities are owned by the cooperative. Members own a share in the cooperative, which entitles them to occupy a space. Mobile home park cooperatives have been set up both as market rate and limited equity cooperatives. Because these numbers are based on a response rate of only 55 percent, they do not reflect the full importance of housing cooperatives in California, Oregon, and Washington.