I would never buy a house that was part of a HOA. For people that like them, more power to ya. But I don't understand the people who complain, just don't buy into an HOA then?
I’d have no problem with their existence if it was a free market, but I have a big problem with them when they’re being legally mandated.
This is true, and I'd never choose to live in an area like that.
“Full rate” is almost always subsidized through the windfall taxes on new growth and development, putting towns in a ponzi scheme like situation.
Kind of like how most software bugs problems are not Integer Overflows, most unsustainable things are not Ponzi schemes.
Then people ought to be complaining about their local governments, not HOAs.
Complain all you want, but if all new homes in your city are in a HOA, you are going to be under the thumb of those 80-something HOA board members who have nothing else to do in life but nitpick your house violations. Is that a desirable outcome for anyone?
Free markets (and the associated "invisible hand") only work when choice is truly available, not purely theoretical.
What is the best alternative to that choice? You can’t answer since you aren’t the one in that position.
Frequently it is the least bad among a bunch of choices.
Choosing to go into crippling debt to pay cancer treatment bills is a choice too, but only a moron thinks the blame should be laid at the feet of the patient for making that “choice”.
Where I’ve bought houses, HOAs were rare. I’ve always heard about these places where HOAs are the only option but I fortunately haven’t run into one.
Listings:
No HOA fee: 32 up to $500/month: 62
I'm not going to bother because this is an HN comment but I think you can imagine what happens to the results when I specify newer than say 1993 (when my house was built).
I have an HOA, but it seems defunct. Everything we do to the house, if visible, can be interpreted to mean I must get unanimous agreements, in writing, from all my neighbors.
It turns out I managed to land right between two asshole neighbors (constant trespassing, dogs, etc)
HOAs are pushed by state and local Florida governments because they create stronger guarantees about what a new development will self-maintain (and therefore won't need to be immediately funded by a local government).
Also... high COL coastal Floridians (and especially transplants) seem to be incredibly conservative in the sense of 'I want to keep my neighbor from doing anything crazy.'
For them, HOAs are a guarantee that the asset they bought is less likely to be blighted by its neighbors.
Personally? It itched like hell when I lived there, and that was with a fairly relaxed HOA. One of the many reasons I'd never live in Florida again.
Still renting is almost always a better economic choice. It's a question of whether your quality of life and the ability to experience meaning is directly tied to your feeling of ownership which somehow translates back to your interest in building your community and neighborhood. And that's where it comes full circle