Visitors come by here looking for communes in the Asheville area so I'm going to put up this post and hope it gets in the search engines.
The best place to look from the urban co-ops to cohousing groups to ecovillages to rural communes in the Western North Carolina area is the Intentional Communities website by state. You can also update that site yo'self. (Earthaven is probably the most well known place around.)
Cohousing has really grown around our area the past decade or so. It's an attempt to utilize the social, economical, and practical benefits of cooperative living while at the same time allowing for individual needs and privacy. In cohousing, families reside in their own private apartments but unlike traditional urban or suburban neighborhoods where anonymity is the rule, cohousing not only allows for, but strongly encourages social interaction, interdependence, and cooperation among all members. Think of it as living in a dorm. You can learn all about cohousing at cohousing.org
The websites stay up to date I so hope this helps out a bit and if there's anything we need to add please let me know.
