Community housing with outdoor garden and seating area.

Bay State Cohousing

  • Communities

About the Communities

  • Established
  • Home-sharing
  • Urban

Founding year

  • 2013

What we do

UPDATE JULY 2026: there is currently one 2-bedroom home available at Bay State Cohousing! To learn more, please reach out to us at: ba*************@***il.com.
Bay State Cohousing is a multigenerational community in Malden, Massachusetts, an inner suburb of Boston. We are located at 368 Pleasant Street, a short walk from the Malden Center subway station (20 minutes to downtown Boston), schools, groceries, restaurants, and public parks. The Northern Strand Community Trail and Bike to the Sea pass nearby, and the Middlesex Fells (a 2,200-acre state park) is one mile away.
Working with our architects and consultants, we developed an energy-efficient 30-unit building for the site. Our community has 5,000 sq ft of shared common space, including kitchen, dining room, living room, meeting rooms, kids’ space, exercise room, art room, and soundproofed music room. The property also has a patio and yard for gathering and gardening, shared decks on the upper floors, and underground parking.
Our new home has an award-winning, environmentally friendly design that reflects our commitment to sustainability and emphasizes beauty in both architecture and landscape. We value a balance between the private and the shared, with individually owned homes complemented by extensive common facilities and shared green space.
Our community spans four generations, including families, couples, and single people, with a wide variety of backgrounds and interests. During the development process — through thick, thin, and Covid — we evolved into a real community, growing in our capacity to support each other and keep us all growing. And finally in late 2022, after nearly a decade of planning and development, we moved in and began living in community!
If you’d like to learn more about us, please email us at baystatewebsite [at] gmail [dot] com.

Our Mission

Traditional Cohousing

  • Purpose
  • Home-sharing
  • Community type
  • Cohousing
  • Activities
  • Property management

Commemorative dates

  • January 1, 2013
  • Started planning
  • January 1, 2022
  • Started living together
  • 42 Total members
  • Open to new members
  • Open to visitors
Total
47

Basic expectations or agreements for members

Look for periodic tours (listed on Meetup and Facebook), or contact us directly through our website.

Primary decision-making authority

  • Small Leadership Group

A few people (not elected by the broader community) make the major decisions.

Decision-making process

  • Modified Consensus

Generally seek agreement, but have backup methods when consensus isn’t reached.

Governance structure

  • Collaborative/Horizontal

Power and responsibility are shared relatively equally among members.

Economic model

  • Independent Finances

Members maintain separate personal finances with minimal sharing.

Economic scenarios for this community

  • Members need to pay fees, dues, or similar to live there on a per month or per year basis
  • There is a labor obligation
  • Members typically need to have their own job or other personal source of income to cover their expenses while living in the community?

Additional economic information

Regular fees: Yes
Labor: Encouraged or suggested

Community activities and engagement

  • Neighborhood, Community Housing, or Homeowner's Association

Age demographics

  • Family-focused (many children and parents)

Property status

  • Privately owned

Property owner

  • By a Land Trust, Home Owners Association, or corporation

Setting

  • Urban

Within city limits with access to urban amenities and infrastructure.

Community type

  • Cohousing

    Private homes with shared common facilities, designed for neighborly
    interaction while maintaining independence.

  • Land area size
    0.8 acres

Guest Book

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Location

  • Massachusetts, United States

Needs and Offers

Offer
  • Communities with Openings
2 weeks ago

Still Point House Manager

Still Point House Manager (Northampton) Windhorse Integrative Mental Health, Inc Are you interested in working where you live? Do you want to make a difference in the lives of others? Do you have experience with running a household, and do you appreciate community-based environments? Windhorse is seeking a manager of a hosted home environment for individuals working with extreme mind states who are arriving to our step-down program. When a Windhorse client first arrives, they are received at our Still Point house, an established home environment where they can land, orient, and meet their clinical team. Each client remains at our Still Point house for two to twelve weeks, at which point they then move to an apartment, which they share with a housemate. Windhorse is seeking a Still Point Manager who will live ongoingly in a house in Northampton and help with these transitions as well as other uses for the house. This individual should be skilled at running an uplifted home (including typical home cleaning and maintenance), cooking, and shopping for the home. They also need to be emotionally regulated, welcoming, compassionate, organized, and patient. While the Still Point Manager has extensive clinical support, the job itself is not clinical. In addition, the Still Point Manager is anticipated to hold outside employment and may do so for up to 20 hours per week. During periods of vacancy when there is no client in residence, the Still Point Manager may also be asked to host guests in the home, either other housemates when they are on respite from their households, or friends and family members from the Windhorse community. In addition, during vacancy periods the Still Point Manager is responsible for providing short periods of respite coverage during housemate time off. This may involve staying with the client in their apartment while the housemate is away (typically for 3 nights) or hosting the client at the Still Point ho
Offer
  • Real Estate For Sale
3 weeks ago

Cohousing Townhome near the beach in Aptos, CA

6026 Soquel Drive, Aptos, CA. A 2 bedroom, 2 bath 1100 square foot townhouse in the New Brighton Cohousing Community. The townhouse is two stories with a full bathroom on each floor and both bedrooms upstairs. The townhouse for sale is a beautiful end unit with a lot of natural light and a large private backyard. Located directly across from the common house and next to the play area, you can enjoy morning coffee on the private balcony overlooking the courtyard. New Brighton Cohousing is a small 11 unit cohousing community, an easy walk to New Brighton State Beach.The central location of this community provides easy access to Highway 1 as well as close proximity to Cabrillo College and local amenities. Cohousing Values and Participation: We formed a multigenerational community, with like-minded owners who participate in governance and events that foster community and a sense of belonging. We have a community organic garden, courtyard, and play area for kids. Our common house has a deck overlooking the courtyard where we have meals, weather permitting, otherwise eating in the community dining room. Our common house has two guest bedrooms, two bathrooms, a dining room/kitchen, living room/den, and kid’s playroom. We have a garage for bicycles and shared tools. Our community is designed, owned and managed by the community. We rehabilitated our buildings and designed our community at our inception in 2007, but continue to evolve. We meet every other month for a business meeting where we make decisions about policies, repairs, budgets, etc. On the alternate months, we meet for community connection meetings where we learn and develop skills for communication, conflict resolution, values discussions, or just have fun together. Everyone works on a committee (finance, maintenance or facilitation) and these committees work for the community. We also belong to an “affinity group” – garden, landscape or common house. Usually we each work about an hour per wee

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