12 Compound Houses To Buy With Your Friends And Family

Communal living is making a big comeback. Millennials to empty nesters are looking for ways to create community, share responsibility, and live less isolated lives. And it makes sense. For most of human history, we’ve lived together in compounds, relying on each other for food, child care, and everything in between. If the word “communal” brings to mind drum circles and tofu potlucks, think again. These 12 compounds for sale on Trulia are more Friendship Row than Hippy 2.0. All include multiple homes or homesites — perfect for creating your ideal neighborhood while maintaining your privacy and autonomy. It’s the best of communal living without the shared bathrooms and chore wheels. Gather up your friends and family and start dreaming.

Price: $650,000

This 3.5-acre, three-home property in Redding, CT, balances natural surroundings with small-town comforts and is just an hour from New York, NY, and New Haven, CT. The main house, a Dutch Colonial, has three bedrooms, a covered porch, and rock fireplaces. It’s flanked by a three-bedroom, ranch-style home and a Cape-style home with a small front porch. You and your friends could pitch in to improve the on-site barn and workshop and create even more living space. With easy access to the Saugatuck Falls Natural Area, it’s perfect for people who enjoy the outdoors. This small town also has major literary bragging rights. Its Mark Twain Library was founded by the town’s most famous resident.

Price: $799,000

Ready to get away from it all? The water is right out the front door at this 3.4-acre lakefront property in Rangeley, ME, that includes a four-bedroom main house, two small cottages, a workshop, barn, and boathouse. This rugged-yet-refined sportsman’s camp has excellent fly-fishing for salmon and trout in the nearby lake and river, and first-rate hiking and camping in the heart of the Western Maine Mountains. The closest restaurant is almost 40 minutes away.

Price: $929,360

This former summer camp has a large main house and four renovated, airy cottages on a 12.5-acre property in the Texas Hill Country — more than enough room for you and your friends to comfortably spread out. There are paddocks and fencing for horses or other livestock, a swimming pool, and a covered picnic area. Play troop leader and head to the nearby Guadalupe Mountains for group hikes or horseback riding. Refuel at the Singing Water Vineyards in soothingly named Comfort (just 7 miles away).

Price: $975,000

The two enormous attached homes on this 18-acre New Jersey property across the water from Seaside Heights share basketball, tennis, racquetball, and volleyball courts, a swimming pool, and a fully equipped outdoor kitchen. Besides its water views, Toms River is known for its Halloween parade, said to be the second-biggest in the world. Start planning some standout costumes early.

Price: $1.35 million

This quirky 60-acre property in Desert Hot Springs, CA — complete with natural hot springs — is the perfect place to soak up the Coachella Valley’s peaceful, bohemian vibe. The 4,000-square-foot main house has been divided into seven units and the surrounding wide-open spaces are ready and waiting for a sprinkling of other homes. The property features a 40-foot indoor pool and sauna, and 360-degree desert views. Get it while it’s hot — Coachella Valley is one of the fastest-growing communities in the state.

Price: $1.395 million

This expansive estate borders Little Round Lake, so renowned for its stellar freshwater fishing that it hosts the National Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame. Bring your fishing rods and hunker down in the property’s motel-like main home with 11 bedrooms and 11 full baths while you design and build your dream homes — the 12-acre property has already been approved for seven more homesites.

Price: $2.8 million

With a trout stream, hiking trails, wildlife, and a waterfall nearby, this is an outdoorsy dream. Ready for a crowd, the 77-acre North Carolina property with eight log cabins is ringed with trees for privacy. Each includes two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a hot tub and a fire pit. Nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains, this compound is directly between the quirky college town of Boone, NC, and Wilkesboro, NC, home of the annual MerleFest music festival.

Price: $3.495 million

This California lakefront compound with its own dock is on the sunny side of Donner Lake near the crest of the Sierra Nevada, just 20 miles from Lake Tahoe. It’s a perfect home base for outdoorsy fun year-round. The half-acre spread features a luxury 3,000-square-foot main house, a two-bedroom apartment above the garage, and three free-standing studio cottages. The nearby ski town of Truckee has a historic downtown with restaurants, shops, and an Amtrak station.

Price: $3.495 million

This 14.86-acre former bison ranch in Georgia is bordered by a U.S. National Forest and has stunning views of the countryside. You and your friends will have to draw straws to see who gets the six-bedroom main house, the six-bedroom log cabin, or the three-bedroom party barn with a state-of-the-art kitchen and bar. The compound even has a helipad should you happen to invite Bruce Wayne for the weekend. The site is secluded but not isolated — you’re only 15 minutes from downtown Helen, where ice cream, minigolf, and happy hour at the Hofbrauhaus all await.

Price: $3.995 million

A luxurious three-bedroom Larry Pearson–designed main house sits atop this stunning 60-acre property in Bozeman like a rustic castle of reclaimed materials. The three-bedroom guesthouse down the hill is just as lovely. But the 360-degree view of four major mountain ranges is the real jaw dropper. The property also has a state-of-the-art horse barn and fenced-in pastures, multiple patios and decks, and a gym. Nearby downtown Bozeman is known for its eclectic cowboy-meets-college-student social scene.

Price: $4.5 million

This luxurious Lake Winnipesaukee compound, built in 1840, has a fairy-tale main home (Boulder Lodge) and five cottages with one to three bedrooms each. The feeling here is elegant summer camp, with a fire pit in the pines, covered porches, wide lawns, a private beach, and floating docks, perfect for jumping off. It’s only 15 minutes to Laconia Airport, less than two hours to Boston, MA, and offers lots to do off-site: hike nearby Alton Bay State Forest, zip-line in Laconia, NH, and even play a few games at Laconia’s Funspot, the largest arcade in the world.

Price: $17.77 million

Welcome to the property that has it all: three gorgeous homes on 110 acres spread between the Pacific and the Santa Ynez Mountains. Explore the property’s miles of private trails on horseback. Pick avocados and fruit from your own orchards and enjoy them on the huge patio with views of the ocean. There’s little reason to leave, but if you do get stir-crazy, downtown Santa Barbara, CA, with first-rate dining, shopping, and entertainment is just 10 minutes away. This is the very definition of California dreaming.