Lush green backyard with a white house and playground equipment.

Muir Commons

  • Communities

About the Communities

  • Established
  • Home-sharing
  • Town/Small City

Founding year

  • 1989

What we do

Muir Commons was the first cohousing community newly constructed in the United States and was modeled after communities in Denmark. After several years of planning, ground breaking took place on November 1990 with the residents moving in during the summer of 1991. Most of the homes were constructed as affordable housing.

Our Mission

Muir Commons co-housing is an inclusive, multi-generational, self-managed, participatory, consensus-based community, intentionally sharing time, space and resources. We are a caring, safe place for children and adults. We share skills, knowledge, tools, help, rides, meals, stories, celebrations, traditions, and concern for each other, our community and the planet.

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

Commemorative dates

  • January 1, 1989
  • Started planning
  • January 1, 1991
  • Started living together
  • 59 Total members
  • Open to new members
  • Open to visitors
Total
64

How to join

Purchase or rent a house.

Basic expectations or agreements for members

Send an email to to***@*********ns.org with dates and times that you want to visit at least a week in advance.

Primary decision-making authority

  • Small Leadership Group

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

Decision-making process

  • Consent-Based (Sociocracy)

Decisions proceed unless someone has a reasoned objection.

Governance structure

  • Sociocratic/Circle-Based

Organized in circles or domains with distributed authority.

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: $360
Labor: Yes (2 hrs/week)
Members with pre-existing debt: allowed

Shared resources and amenities that are accessible to everyone in the community

Common House, Garden(s), Workshop, Hot tub or hot springs, Large Scale Kitchen, Fire pit, Swingsets & play areas, Internet

Frequency of communal meals

  • 1-3 times per month

Dietary type

  • Vegetarian Only

Dietary restriction

  • People can cook and eat what they want in their own residence

Community activities and engagement

  • Neighborhood, Community Housing, or Homeowner's Association
  • Religions
  • Christian
  • Buddhist
  • Jewish

Gender composition

  • Roughly balanced (no group over 60%)

Age demographics

  • Family-focused (many children and parents)

Property status

  • Privately owned

Property owner

  • By a single individual, couple, or Family Trust

Setting

  • Town/Small City

Smaller municipalities with local services but rural character.

Community type

  • Cohousing

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

Self-produced energy

  • 33 - 66%

Energy sources used

  • Photovoltaic Solar

Self-produced food

  • Up to 33%

Food systems

  • Community garden
  • Land area size
    3 acres

Guest Book

Written reviews are available for plus members. Click here to upgrade.

Location

  • California, United States

Muir Commons

Needs and Offers

Connecting people and communities through an intentional online marketplace

  • Promoted
Offer
  • Promoted
Need
  • Promoted
  • Events
2 weeks ago

Healing Love Healing Money: Trust As The Foundation For A New Culture

Money, love and power are among the hardest things any community works with, and many of us carry the same fears into both: not having enough, losing what we have, and the sense that if someone else gets money or love, we won’t. Healing Love, Healing Money: Trust as the Foundation for a New Culture is taught by two intentional communities. Karen McAllister and Duncan Cryle are from Clear Sky Meditation and Retreat Center, a Buddhist-lineage community in the BC Rockies. Monika Alleweldt and Benjamin von Mendelssohn from Tamera Healing Biotope, a community of about 160 people in southern Portugal that has spent decades studying love, trust and relationship. Clear Sky has spent years working on its relationship with money, and our two communities found surprising parallels in the fears beneath both. Over four sessions we explore the roots of fear around money and belonging, love, possession and power, trust as infrastructure (community as a container for healing), and ethical livelihood. We use short meditations, body-based practices, reflection and small-group conversation. You do not need to be in a romantic relationship or live in community. When: October 27, Nov 3, 10, 17. All four sessions: 12–2pm Vancouver, 1–3pm Alberta, 7–9pm UK and Portugal, 8–10pm Central Europe. Note: US and some Canadian provinces change clocks on November 1, so the US west coast is 12–2pm on October 27, then 11am–1pm for the remaining sessions, and Eastern is 3–5pm on October 27, then 2–4pm for the rest. Cost: sliding scale Details and registration: https://www.clearskycenter.org/event/healing-love-healing-money-online/  
October 27, 2026 13:00 – November 17, 2026 15:00
Offer

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