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Sharingwood
Call 360-668-1439Arrange a visit

Cohousing · Snohomish County, WA

There are no strangers here.

A multigenerational community that gathers around one long table — sharing meals, work, and forty years of ordinary life together.

Arrange a visitSee the homes

A welcome

Wilderness to some, sanctuary to others.

For over forty years, on 39 forested acres since 1982, we have joined on this land to hand-build a life among the trees — to form a community for all ages, and to wisely steward the native forests that surround us. A comforting contrast to the workaday world.

How membership works

The homes & the land

Buy a lot, build your home.

Members build to their own budget and taste — which is why the neighborhood runs from conventional houses to hand-sculpted cob cottages and straw-bale studios, no two alike.

A hand-sculpted cob cottage with a rounded roofline, set behind a lush summer garden and ringed by tall conifers.
A cob cottage, west garden
Inside the straw-bale studio: a hand-sculpted blue figure pressed into the plaster wall, a river-stone hearth around a wood stove, and a honey-wood ceiling.
The straw-bale studio, sculpted wall
A loft bedroom under a hand-plastered white ceiling with exposed log beams, skylights, and a striped quilt.
A loft under hand-plastered beams
Build your own
A lot-development model: purchase a lot and build to your own plans. Homes here sell for roughly $375,000 to $550,000.
Rent first
A limited number of rentals, from about $900 a month for an apartment to around $1,700 for an entire house.
Shared land
A 23-acre forested greenbelt with trails, a stream, and a beaver pond — co-stewarded with Forterra Land Trust — plus a common house, gardens, playgrounds, a hot tub, and a fire pit.

What four decades build

40+
Years as a community, since 1982
39
Forested acres, 23 of them protected greenbelt
~70
Neighbors, of every generation
1st
Open-air condominium in Washington State, 1991

Life here

An unhurried week.

The rhythm of the place is set by the people in it — shared meals, time in the gardens, and decisions made together.

Shared meals
Community meals in the Common House, one to three times a month, cooked and shared together.
Work parties & gardens
Organic beds, a greenhouse, and fruit trees tended at regular work parties through the seasons.
Gatherings
Campfires, concerts, and children’s activities — the ordinary abundance of a neighborhood that knows itself.
How we decide
Monthly general meetings run by consensus, and about one hour a week of shared community labor from each household.
The living room of a cob cottage: a wood stove, a branch-relief loft overhead, a chesterfield sofa, and honey-wood floors.

Our story

It began in 1982, when Shirley Risser — then seventy-two — bought half interest in thirty-eight forested acres to build the cooperative community she imagined.

Planning began in 1984; the first families moved onto the land in 1990; and in 1991 Sharingwood became Washington State’s first open-air condominium — a legal structure that let privately owned homes sit within a shared-amenity community.

A second wave of young families arrived around that time and shaped the multigenerational community we are today — four decades of mutual aid, consensus, and forest stewardship.

In a resident’s words

It is inconceivable for me to ever move back to a “normal” neighborhood, where everyone is a stranger and I have to be afraid every time my kid goes out the door.

Rob SandelinSharingwood resident

How it works

How membership works.

How does the lot-development model work?
Members purchase a lot within the community and then build a home to their own budget, taste, and specifications — which is why Sharingwood includes everything from conventional homes to cob cottages and straw-bale studios.
What does membership cost?
Homes typically sell for between $375,000 and $550,000. Rentals range from about $900 a month for smaller apartments to $1,700 for entire houses. Members also pay $125 in regular community fees.
What is expected of residents?
Residents contribute about one hour per week of community labor and take part in the consensus-based governance model through monthly general meetings and smaller working groups.
Can I visit before joining?
The community accepts visitors by request. Write to info@sharingwood.net or call 360-668-1439 to arrange a visit.

Visit

Come see it for yourself.

Phone

360-668-1439

Email

Come by

22105 E Lost Lake RdSnohomish, WA 98296Get directions

Visits by request.

Arrange a visit

South Snohomish County · about 25 miles northeast of Seattle.

A Washington nonprofit community since 1991, co-stewarding our greenbelt with Forterra Land Trust.

There is room among the trees.

Come walk the land, share a meal, and see whether this is the community you have been looking for.

Arrange a visit