I understand what HOA’s do, and was first introduced to the term in a condo building (not mine). I understand in a condo building, or high rise, you’re all sharing one building and need to contribute to that building’s maintenance. But I don’t understand HOA’s in neighborhoods…when you live in your own house. Is it only certain neighborhoods? I know someone who lives on a nice street in a suburb and there’s no HOA. Who decides if there is one, and what do neighborhood HOA’s exist for? Are you allowed to opt out?
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My neighborhood has three large ponds, a playground, walking trails and common entry area property. The HOA manages all that.
Back in the Midwest, I didn’t see a ton of HOAs, except for in the super ritzy neighborhoods with million-plus dollar homes. They were usually the stereotypical HOA that people imagine when envisioning an HOA: nitpicking every little thing, enforced conformity for conformity’s sake, etc. Seeing them, I vowed to never live in an HOA.
Then I moved to California, and at least in the area of Southern California where we were looking to move, there was a stark difference between neighborhoods with HOAs and neighborhoods without them. Almost every single neighborhood we visited without an HOA looked trashy. Overgrown weeds, rusted-out broken-down cars all over, houses that were falling apart or in dire need of a paint job, etc. I can only imagine how that affects home values in those neighborhoods, and the type of people that they attract.
I don’t know if people in my area of the Midwest (northern Illinois) just had more pride in their homes/yards/neighborhoods or what. But it was eye-opening, that’s for sure.
I started to come around on HOAs a bit after seeing that. The house we ended up buying was new development, and had an HOA that you had to join to live there. I looked over the rules, though, and honestly, none of them were egregious, IMO. That said, I still got myself on the HOA board, because I wanted some say in making sure that the HOA stayed as hands-off as possible. HOAs can be used to great effect, IMO, to keep the neighborhood from looking like shit, and keeping home values up. They can also be easily abused by the type of people who want to power-trip. So it’s a balancing act.
One other use for HOAs is maintenance and upkeep of communal areas. In my neighborhood, that’s basically just a park and the flowers/trees around the neighborhood. But there are plenty of neighborhoods that have a community pool, gates and/or guards, clubhouses, and things like that. HOAs are responsible for all of that stuff.
Our HOA for a ~60 lot neighborhood from the early 90’s generally covers maintenance of the shared spaces (we have a large park and playground, the cul-de-sacs all have round-abouts, and the sidewalks) and throwing several events each year (Halloween, Easter, etc.). Technically there’s a group on the board that’s supposed to approve “significant” visible changes to your property and enforce minimal guidelines on things like lawns and parking, etc. but I’m not sure anyone actually goes through them. We recently voted to increase our yearly dues to cover some improvements we want to make to the neighborhood (putting in a proper sports court, more community building activities).
I will say when we first moved in I wasn’t particularly jazzed about it but the longer we’ve been here the more I see it’s value as a community builder. Sort of like a PTA or union for your day-to-day lives and I personally envision an even more radical version that could provide a substantial quality of life improvement for the residents. That said we have a couple things going for us: a lot of families that are used to being involved with their kids school and understand how much easier solidarity makes everyone’s lives and we (the residents) still control the HOA board. Some HOA’s are run by HOA management companies which is a bad deal. It costs more, to pay the company on top of everything else, and the board is not particularly invested in the well being of the community.
I don’t mind my HOA….. keeps my neighbors from opening dog kennels, petting zoos, junkyards and from my last neighborhood, above ground pool in the front yard
HOA is not just an American thing.
I’m in Europe, we have those too. The one in my area collects annual fees of about 100 eur, this money is used for road maintenance, non-drinking water (to water people’s gardens), currently they’re considering building light poles because at the moment all streets here are dark, the only light is from people’s houses. In summer they’ll arrange pickup of garden waste, downed trees and all that. In winter they arrange snow plows.
Nobody objects to it, the fee isn’t huge and the services are obvious.
There’s none of that totalitarian shit that you hear about, they will only tell you to do something if it actually affects the neighbours, like trees that have grown too large and need trimming, or unkept garden with some pest infestation.
HOAs are horrible until you actually need one.
I have a family member whose home value cratered due to an insane neighbor that – literally – spray painted highly detailed graffiti of genitalia on the side wall of their home.
Under an HOA, that would’ve never happened, and my family member’s home would still be salable.
I live in Arizona, one of the earliest places for Master Planned Communities (MPCs) to exist, thanks to Del Webb in Sun City.
Before MPCs, most houses were individually designed and built, the land they sit on individually cut from larger parcels. This made planning roads in the community difficult and the neighborhood typically lacked cohesion. Developers like Del Webb imagined a singular, uniform community where control over it goes from the initial parcel purchase to well past when all the homes are built and sold. His first community was dedicated to old people, literally, as a condition to live in Sun City was the primary homeowner had to be 55+, with a bit of leniency with spouses (I think 45+) and children (short term or visitation only).
They obviously plan and build all the houses the same way, as they’re the ones leading the project, but to maintain all the other bullshit rules and control they impose on their customers, they mandate membership into an HOA.
Homeowner’s Associations (HOAs) aren’t always tied to an MPC, but nearly every MPC has an HOA. Initially, they were meant to be an association between neighbors to maintain their own property values by being good neighbors, such as restricting uses of the property, establishing quiet hours, etc. You know, so people wanting to buy into that neighborhood won’t be dissuaded by shitty neighbors. But from an MPC, it becomes more like a corporation-led government.
In some HOAs, the community services like landscaping, pool maintenance, and other amenities are sponsored or paid for by the HOA directly. So the HOA fees are more like property taxes that go to the “city” that then pays for stuff like roads and parks. And the HOA has enforcement rights to penalize residents that are noncompliant. So, exactly like a mini government. MPC HOAs take this even further. You know Anthem? It’s not a city, it’s literally an HOA masquerading as a city. Half of it is actually annexed by Phoenix.
So that’s basically it. HOAs are meant to maintain housing property values, but can ultimately have the same power as a city but as a corporation. The libertarian idea of what government should be like.
It is western sharia law. We need to abolish this stain on society and just let people live.
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