Walnut House Cooperative is a 22-unit limited equity co-op apartment building in Berkeley, California.
Below you’ll find long but incomplete details about our cooperative and how it works. If you’re interested in an even deeper dive, our Articles of Incorporation, Bylaws, and Proprietary Lease (linked under Guiding Documents) provide additional description of Member and Cooperative duties and responsibilities.
Location
Located several blocks northwest of the UC Berkeley campus, Walnut House is about five blocks from downtown Berkeley and close to theaters, concert venues, movie houses, restaurants, post offices, supermarkets, public libraries, several parks, and a variety of other amenities and establishments. Several bus routes are only a block away, and the downtown Berkeley BART station is half a mile away. Traffic is relatively light on our street, and UC Berkeley’s agriculture field provides a block of open space across the street (although they may develop student housing there eventually).
Our building
Walnut House was built in 1927. Of the 22 units, eleven are studios, nine are one-bedroom units, and there are two two-bedroom units. Although apartments vary in size, they have good natural light, at least decent closet space, and small dinettes adjoin most kitchens. Stoves and refrigerators are provided, as well as central steam heat.
There is a shared laundry room, inexpensive bike storage available for monthly rental, an office, and a small meeting room. Garage space is limited and mostly used for common and personal storage. Street parking is available (annual permits can be purchased through the Berkeley neighborhood parking zone program) and there are several “emergency” parking spaces behind the building for infrequent, short-term use.
Accessibility information
Walnut House is a four-story building without an elevator. There is one step at the main front entrance and two in the back. There are sixteen steps to the 2nd floor, and seventeen more to the 3rd floor. (The 4th floor is a single tiny rooftop studio.) The ground floor hallway is 57” wide, with a 5.5” step between back and front, and the front door is 42” wide. For unit-specific accessibility information, please see individual unit descriptions.
The building is not fragrance free or low scent. Several members have pets (including both cats and dogs) that live in their units. In accordance with Berkeley Municipal Code 12.70, smoking is not allowed in the building. All co-op meetings are held via Zoom. For any questions or more information around accessibility, please don’t hesitate to reach out to the Selections Committee at [email protected].
Apartment units
There are 22 units on four floors. As a 1920’s building, our units might be considered small by today’s standards.
- Studios (11): Most new members join us by moving into a studio. Studios range from 400-480 square feet, with a two-person occupancy limit.
- One-bedroom units (9): Vacancies of one bedrooms are often taken by existing members, and range from 550-750 square feet depending on layout, with a three-person occupancy limit.
- Two-bedroom units (2): These rarely become available, and past vacancies have been filled by existing members with many years of seniority. These units are 1,017 and 1,038 square feet each, and have an occupancy limit of five people.
We offer storage in garage spaces behind our main building. Garage units are typically shared between 2-3 people and currently rent for $53/mo (for 1/3rd of a shared garage) to $159/mo (for an entire garage). Garage space isn’t always available for new members when they first move in, and members aren’t guaranteed it, but we do attempt to distribute it equitably.
Secure bicycle storage is available for $14/mo per bicycle, though many members also keep bikes in their personal garage storage space or their own units.
Cooperative ownership & member equity
Walnut House is a nonprofit “mutual-benefit” corporation. Formed in 1981 with the goal of purchasing the property and operating it as a limited-equity housing cooperative, we formally acquired the building and land on December 31, 1982. To learn more about limited equity cooperatives in general, how they work, and why they matter, see this brief definition, or this report on the role they can play in providing long-term affordable housing.
Each member of Walnut House Cooperative owns one of twenty-two shares of stock (often colloquially referred to as a member’s “share” or “share value”), and each of these shares corresponds to an apartment unit. Incoming members purchase a share in order to join the Cooperative, and owning a share entitles a member (or “member-household,” such as a couple who co-owns their share) to lease the unit corresponding to their share. As with almost all housing cooperatives, this is a “proprietary lease”; unlike a condo, members do not technically own their apartments. Instead, ownership of the physical building, including responsibility for much of the maintenance, plumbing, major appliances, etc, remains with the cooperative.
A share’s cost is based on the unit’s size and relative value as established by the cooperative when it was formed, as well as the value of any pre-approved capital improvements made to the unit by prior members. Share values increase annually as determined by the membership; historically, our annual increases are around 3-5% (and never more than 10%), based on cost of living increases and state law. (A member’s share value is returned when a member moves out. Because of annual share value increases, the dollar amount an outgoing member receives will have accrued interest annually, at an amount pegged roughly to the US Consumer Price Index’s pace of inflation. Shares are not affected by disproportionate appreciation of local property values, and cannot be privately bought or sold. Incoming members will always purchase their share from WHC, and outgoing members will always sell their share back to WHC.)
As of 2026, membership share values for studios range from $10,336 to $18,522; one bedrooms are $18,092 to $24,670; and the two bedrooms’ share values are $28,701 and $36,783.
As a limited-equity cooperative, other than annual interest that accrues on the value of these shares, all equity accrues to the corporation itself, reinvesting in Walnut House Cooperative’s maintenance and long-term solvency. By restricting individual shareholders’ equity gains, the limited-equity co-op model makes housing stability possible for people of moderate means, despite skyrocketing costs of Bay Area real estate.
Incoming members generally use their own resources to purchase their share of stock. Other resources may be available, including the Northern California Land Trust’s CalHome Downpayment Assistance program for first-time homebuyers. We’ll update this if we identify any additional resources for low-interest loans, and we hope you’ll share ones on your radar with us.
Low costs and financial stability
Assessments are reviewed as part of our annual budgeting process, and increase to cover current and projected expenses, fund capital improvements, and increase cash reserves set aside for future repairs and contingencies. Current monthly assessments range from $493 to $903 for studios; one bedrooms are $870 to $1,118; and the two bedrooms are $1,353 and $1,569.
Like share values, we raise assessments annually based on the co-op’s projected needs, inflation, and the limits set by state and local housing regulations. At our November 2025 General Membership meeting, we agreed by consensus to increase 2026 assessments by 7% as part of the approval process for our projected 2026 budget. Historically, assessment increases have typically been lower, but as costs to maintain the building rise, finding a balance between affordability and long-term financial sustainability is an ongoing conversation. (Besides laundry quarters and income from member rental of shared garage storage spaces, assessments are Walnut House’s sole source of income. From these three things, the co-op covers all property taxes, repair and replacement expenses both large and small, and all our utilities except electricity.)
Members can deduct their portion of property tax from their taxable income, though for many the amount won’t be high enough to exceed the standard deduction (i.e. unless you earn enough to itemize deductions, this won’t actually decrease what you owe).
There are strict guidelines around subletting. Subletting agreements are reviewed and approved by the Board, and units cannot be sublet at a profit (e.g. no AirBnB arbitrage).
Please note that although our monthly assessments are below comparable neighborhood rental prices and therefore provide affordable housing, applicants should consider the value of the time required of them as members (see “Shared responsibilities” below) in determining whether the co-op makes sense for them.
Shared responsibilities
The co-op is governed by a Board of Directors composed of 3-5 members elected to staggered 1- and 2-year terms. The Board coordinates the work of committees that handle day-to-day building management and maintenance, with the help of a part-time Resident Manager (who is both a resident and a member). The membership as a whole plays an active role in governance. This includes familiarity with the organizational bylaws, applicable state and local laws; attending or staying informed about Board and committee activities; and participating in General Membership meetings. We do our best to make decisions by consensus at each level of the organization, but when consensus cannot be reached, we vote. At General Membership meetings, each unit has one vote, 14 voting members constitute a quorum, and a two-thirds majority is required to approve decisions.
In addition to sharing responsibility for governance, all co-op residents are expected to share in the management, maintenance, and improvement of our building and grounds. The work participation requirement currently expected of all members is 8hrs/month. Different members have different skills, aptitudes, and preferences, so members aren’t typically directed to particular tasks. Instead, members are expected to proactively participate in projects and volunteer when assistance is requested, and are encouraged to take initiative to identify other ways of contributing to the community. Much of the work is physical, such as gardening, minor repairs, and cleaning of common areas. Other tasks include office work and planning, research, and project management or coordination. Committee members frequently do additional labor outside of meetings such as preparing minutes, gathering and reporting the information needed for decision-making, and follow-up tasks based on those decisions.
Meetings
The elected Board meets monthly, and General Membership meetings are also held most months (they’re legally required at least annually for year-end financial review and budget approvals). Other ongoing Committees and temporary working groups meet according to project needs. As of 2026, our current committees are Maintenance and Member Selections. Recent project-specific working groups have focused on insurance, energy/sustainability upgrades, a seismic retrofit project, groundskeeping, and bookkeeping.
Community with privacy
One of the goals in establishing the co-op was to create an urban community in which people know and help one another. While members enjoy privacy in their own apartments, many get to know each other during meetings, on workdays, or while collaborating on tasks and projects throughout the year. Members occasionally throw seasonal parties or potlucks, and gather informally in the halls, in one another’s apartments, and in the back room. That said, we’re not a commune, co-housing, or collective; each unit is a self-contained apartment with kitchen and bathroom (and unlike a co-housing community, our building wasn’t designed with shared public space in mind), not all of us are social butterflies, and as with any community we do have conflict. We’re a community made up of people of a variety of backgrounds, ages, occupations, and lifestyles. Although we welcome children, the size of most units (especially those available to new members) means that Walnut House is largely a community of adults, many of whom are single. In some units, there isn’t as much privacy as we’d like due to particularly transmissive walls/floors/ceilings, which make these units a poor fit for people who need either the quiet or the noise-making freedom that comes with living in a single-family residence.
Well-behaved pets are welcome, but they’re not allowed to roam the halls unsupervised.
Membership turnover & new member selection
Members who wish to leave should notify the co-op as soon as possible, no less than two months in advance. When a member leaves, the co-op buys back the share of stock corresponding to their unit, and the amount is returned to them (including interest accrued since joining the cooperative, as well as the value of any pre-approved capital improvements the member has made to their unit). Shares cannot be privately bought or sold.
When units become available, they’re first offered to existing members (newer members to the co-op often take this as an opportunity to switch to a larger unit, or one that better suits their needs). Because of this, the apartments available for incoming members tend to be studios and/or older units that haven’t been updated recently, and the timeline for turning over a new vacancy varies depending on the extent of repairs needed. (If you’re curious to know the factors that play into this, they include delays with the City of Berkeley permitting process; contractor availability for larger jobs; the availability of skilled member-volunteers to complete smaller jobs in-house, or to project-manage larger ones; whether any unit switches are taking place; and the standard Maintenance Committee and Board approval process that cooperative self-management involves.)
Because of this, the Selections Committee uses a waitlist model; rather than soliciting applications for a specific unit available for move-in right away, we solicit applications for anticipated future vacancies. Our goal is to build a waitlist of strong prospective members to fill expected upcoming vacancies, as well as any others that arise over the next several years. This ensures that we’ll have sufficient time to complete repairs while a unit is empty, avoids unnecessary vacancy loss on units that are already in good shape, and enables us to provide waitlisters with accurate expectations about the move-in timeline. It also allows Selections to cast a wider net for fantastic prospective members!
The Selections Committee relies heavily on interviews to identify prospective members to fill the waitlist, then completes credit, income/finance, and reference checks before forwarding their new member recommendations to the Board for approval. If you’re offered a waitlist slot, this means you’ve been provisionally approved for membership.
Once maintenance is complete and a unit becomes available for move-in, it’s offered to waitlisters in order of ranking and move-in availability. If you accept, the next step is to purchase your share in the co-op (or make a substantial payment toward the full amount), after which, you become a full member! Hurray! Next, we’ll work together to select a move-in date compatible with your current housing obligations and our availability timeline, then you’ll sign a proprietary lease and pay your first month’s assessment. No share value payment, assessments, or signed lease will be expected of waitlisters until they’re formally offered a specific unit and move-in date.