Around 50 people, with a span of seventy years between the youngest and the oldest, call Cobb Hill CoHousing home. They live in 3 apartments, 6 duplexes, and 8 single homes on 270 acres of forest, pasture, and agriculture soils.

Since its founding in 2001, Elizabeth Sawin and her husband have been members of Cobb Hill CoHousing, a multigenerational community of 23 families in Vermont’s Connecticut River Valley. This spring they’re moving to a larger home—but not far. They’ve chosen to stay within the community.

They’ll continue to take part in the rhythms of Cobb Hill: twelve community meetings, twelve community work days, and regular committee gatherings each year.

“We had to move,” she says, “but we didn’t want to go anywhere else.” Then she shares six reasons why. Among them:

People. In uncertain times, it matters more than ever to be surrounded by people you trust—neighbors who show up with soup, laughter, and care, and who you want to show up for in return.

Learning. No one has all the answers. But in community, people figure things out together—whether it’s solar panels, EV chargers, or how to gather again after hard times.

Resilience. All of this—people, land, learning, food—adds up to something deeper: the capacity to adapt, support each other, and face what comes, together.

Future. Cobb Hill sends ripples outward. What’s learned there doesn’t stay there. People take it with them to build new things elsewhere. That’s how change grows.

ARTICLE: Six Reasons for Communitarian Living