I've been pondering the pros and cons of my living situation and thought there might be some people here that have been at this point and might have some advice.
Since leaving my parents' place at 18 I've always lived in communal situations either in a dorm or an apartment shared with people around my age. For the past six years I've lived in a nice six-bedroom house with 2 1/2 bathrooms, two kitchens, a backyard with a firepit and grill, with a revolving cast of five other adults and I've never seriously considered moving. I'm quite good friends with most of the people I live and have lived with, we often cook together, host parties, play music, etc. We're not formally a co-op but it's somewhat in that vein. I find this more satisfying on an emotional level than I imagine living alone or just with my partner (who's also been living here for the past year) would be. And, obviously, it's a lot less expensive.
While I could imagine maintaining this situation indefinitely, it seems that most of my peer group (I'm 31, my SO is 36, we live in the Northeastern US) doesn't consider this setup their ultimate goal. Most people seem to prefer to live with their significant other and/or kids exclusively. So, I'm starting to wonder what makes me an outlier and whether there are drawbacks clear to others that I'm not seeing or taking seriously enough. I'm interested in hearing from others who have either considered this more communal lifestyle and changed their minds, or faced some of these (or other) challenges and overcame them. Here are some of the concerns I have:
1. Kids - seems like the most obvious one. People don't want be around other people's kids 24/7, and they don't want other people around their kids 24/7. Especially when you're raising young kids (and potentially working a full time job as well), you don't have much time/interest in also socializing with your housemates. My SO and I aren't planning on having children, but I wouldn't necessarily mind living with people that do. It might be tough to find people with kids that feel this way, though.
2. Age of roommates - because people are less into communal living as they get older, the age discrepancy between me and the other people here has been getting bigger as time goes on. Living with younger people doesn't really bother me (I've found maturity is not that closely correlated with age) but this might not hold vice versa (i.e. it might become harder to find roommates when I'm 45 and my SO is 50).
3. Conflict - managing the personalities and living styles of two adults living together can be tricky enough; things get way more complicated when 6+ people are sharing kitchens, bathrooms, etc. We have been pretty successful at this through frequent communication and explicit expectation-setting, but there have been a few times when we've decided to part ways with a roommate that wasn't planning on moving but wasn't a good match (not a pleasant conversation to have).