Having lived for a short time in "Cohousing," which is simply a fancy word for a bunch of people who own an entire condo complex/set of houses as a group, shari

Having lived for a short time in "Cohousing," which is simply a fancy word for a bunch of people who own an entire condo complex/set of houses as a group, sharing ownership of a clubhouse and other facilities -- YES. The core problem was diverse goals. The entire group each time (I somehow made this mistake TWICE) had a hard time coming to common solutions around the most trivial decisions. Until you have something like a manifesto with a long set of explanations of what will be expected of everyone, you shouldn't even try to START forming the group. No more than a set of 3-4 friends should write the manifesto, either, or it won't have enough teeth. And there's a downside here, too: If you're going to live together with a lot of people with shared rules, the one thing you DON'T want is a lot of cultural diversity, at least not before the rules are set down and the new "diverse" members have bought into them. I've seen a community with strict vegans who wouldn't ever attend a meal where meat was served and other members who wouldn't eat if there wasn't a hefty meat portion. Now everyone gets their own kitchens, but the optional 2-3 times a week "common meals" were a strong way to stay connected with others in the community -- except in that they were also a source of conflict, for meat/no-meat and other reasons. tl;dr: Living together with (say) 30 other people is somewhat like being in a marriage with 30 other people, only with fewer benefits. At least in most such communities.