Actually it is a trade off, since high HOA fees decrease the value of a home. Smart buyers add them into their monthly mortgage payments for figuring out what home to buy. Yes, HOA’s make the area look nicer, but they can be costly.
New research busts myth that HOAs protect property values • IACNow a new study by a retired Yale University researcher concludes that, contrary to industry claims and popular assumptions, HOAs don’t protect property values after all… Results – HOA myth busted!
Unlike previous research, which analyzed home sale prices of HOA vs. non-HOA homes, this study examined the percent change in a home’s value over time. It then compared appreciation rates of properties in HOA and non-HOA communities.
Comparing a home’s most recent sale price to its previous sale price, Robertson determined the Annual Percentage Return (APR) for each home in the random sample of three Counties selected.
The data reveal something unexpected by many in the HOA industry. According to the data, homes that are not governed by HOA covenants, restrictions and rules increased in value, on average, at a significantly higher rate than homes located in HOA-governed communities.
Put another way, properties in HOA-governed communities have a lower return on investment than homes outside the boundaries of HOAs.
Remember also- the HOA assoc can likely raise the dues by a very high amount, and there is nothing you can do. This happened to a friend of mine, due to a attack in the garage, 24 hour armed security was bought, which raised the HOA dues astronomically . And then- you are stuck, since it is now much harder to sell and get out.
Why do you care if someone else’s lawn is dead or overgrown? Serious question.
That varies regionally. Older communities have few HOAs, and even if your want one you may not be able to find one. Some communities that were built more recently are almost completely HOAs, and if your job is there, you are pretty much stuck dealing with an HOA.
We had zero experience with HOAs when we bought our place in Anchorage, so it was with much relief that we discovered that the group on the board was reasonable and competent. They had a retired CPA who handled the money and put it aside for future upgrades (roofs, driveways, streets, garage doors), they had a handyman who was knowledgeable and a gardening/plowing service that was competent. They enforced the covenants without being thuggish about it, put all major decisions to a vote by the membership, and were generally a benign presence. During the last two years we were there, a woman with an agenda weaseled her way into the president’s chair and began trying to make unilateral decisions. She was shocked when 50 people showed up at the next meeting and made her back down.
So what it really comes down to is who is on the board, which must be elected by the membership (owners), and the willingness of the owners to challenge bad decisions. An apathetic membership allows people with personal agendas to make decisions, and for petty bullies to hound others.
As a kid, we always seemed to be the family with too many bikes on the back porch (seriously, we got dinged for having four instead of two - but there were four kids in our family of four different sizes at the time), or a planter of herbs someone forgot to water, or something else going on that with two parents working full time and half the kids too young to be responsible for upkeep without close supervision was attended to a lot later than some of the neighbors were happy with.
Now I own two vehicles, one of them a pickup, which is machina non grata with quite a few HOA’s in the area.
When I’ve had the space I’ve had a large garden which, again, is forbidden by many HOA’s.
I also like bright colors and eccentricity.
I just don’t feel like I’d be a good fit for an HOA neighborhood.
I currently live in an apartment building where I don’t have room for a large garden but the management is OK with a container garden on my balcony. I have a place to store my bike indoors. And while I can’t park both my vehicles on the lot directly in front of my apartment management does give me a second spot on a lot with one of their nearby buildings so I have a safe spot to put both of them. So… yeah, I sort of have an “HOA”, but since I don’t own leaving if I become dissatisfied is much easier. And they’ll let me decorate my windows the way I want, hang a wreath or other decoration on my door, put out a pretty welcome mat, and might be OK with me painting my door a different color than it currently is (I haven’t asked).
If I bought property, though, I’d very much want to have free reign over it. And I’m OK with the neighbors having the same as long as there isn’t a health hazard like a rat colony.
Back when California was in a serious drought a few years ago, dead lawns became a serious point of contention between the state and HOAs. Under drought rules, people were required to cut back on how often they watered their lawns, and were encouraged (although not required) to just stop watering altogether and let their lawns turn “California gold”. But then some HOAs were fining people for not keeping their lawns perfectly green, and in some cases maintaing a lawn to the HOA’s standards would have meant violating the conservation rules.
I (in a non-HOA neighborhood) chose to stop watering altogether, and then took advantage of the city’s “cash for grass” rebate the replace the front lawn with mulch and native shrubs.
I live in a White flight HOA. Seriously there is a covenant that states that colored people including servants are not allowed to spend the night in the HOA. Now this passage was rescinded in the early 90s (92 I think) but it certainly makes me look a little sideways at my neighbors who have lived here since the 70s. The HOA was founded in 1950.
Overall, I dislike HOAs and I generally specifically exclude them from my real estate searches but since this one was founded on keeping the “others” out its not bad the dues are $13 per year and only cover maintenance on 3 signs and supposedly great christmas party. I called the HOA president shortly after we moved in to get approval for a fence and he told me to get a county permit so if anyone complained we could show them it was legal. I’ve had a giant trash pile in my front yard for a year now and no one has said anything too me except that my remodel work looks nice.
In general, I’ve found that more expensive neighborhoods cause people to take care of their house more since they can either afford to pay someone to take care of it or they value the investment they’ve made and want to take care of it so I look for the most expensive neighborhood I can afford without an HOA. I get more house for my money outside since I have to deduct the HOA payment from the monthly rate I can afford (same as in high property tax areas). I will try to avoid HOAs in the future but if I run into another one like this with 5 rules and basically no cost I could be talked into it again.
An overgrown lawn tends to have more weeds, and the seeds of those weeds drift into other people’s lawns and sprout there. Neighbors who prefer a weed-free lawn will have more hassles to deal with. And there’s the effect on home price. It’s going to be harder to sell a house when the neighbor’s lawn looks bad. A dead lawn is a sign of neglect, which might indicate neglect in other areas of home maintenance.
Good question. I care about the way my house and lawn look (again. Within limits. I’ve left things out front overnight, I mow my lawn every two weeks, and I find desert landscape yards great. It’s about looking like you give enough of a crap to put forward the bare minimum of effort) because they are how I represent my community. When others don’t do the same, they make the whole community look worse.
That was at an apartment complex, actually - and our unit backed up against an abandoned construction site/vacant lot so it’s not like we were ruining the scenery.
At the time we couldn’t have lived in one of the local HOA’s because, although a couple years out from the race/religion based exclusions being declared unconstitutional it’s not like the problems were fixed overnight. There were a lot of places we just couldn’t get into because dad was Jewish. No, it wasn’t as bad as being black, but plenty of those old exclusions covered more than just skin color.
And yes, that also plays into my mistrust of HOA’s.
I’m in Wisconsin. At the height of summer, if we’ve had a normal amount of rain, twice a week is pretty normal. Years ago I had a lawn service come to spray fertilizer and weed killer. I eventually got rid of them because once the creeping charlie was gone, the couple of weeds that popped up throughout the summer didn’t bother me nearly as having to mow 3 times a week. I’m down to once a week at the moment, but we haven’t had a whole lot of rain (and it’s been really hot out) for the last few weeks.
It’s funny – I never heard of an HOA until about ten years ago. There weren’t any in my home town, and I don’t know of any where I live now.
We did have a neighbor who neglected his house terribly. It didn’t seem to have any affect on home values. For a variety of reasons, I don’t think home values are anything to worry about.
Northwest Indiana here - they call it “tallgrass prairie” for a reason. The wild grass around here grows 6-9 feet by summer’s end if left to itself. “Tame” lawn grass not so much, but during the height of the growing season mowing twice a week is pretty common because this is grass country and great conditions for it.
I’ve lived under the thumb of HOAs that had ridiculous rules like how the house can be painted one of five colors, the roof shingles had to be one of three colors of a particular brand, your front yard had to have two (not one, and certainly not three!) trees of four specific species, and even limitations on your personal vehicle - pickups larger than a quarter-ton were forbidden, and your garage door must stay closed at all times. When my neighbor got hassled for having the garage door open for maybe ten minutes while bringing in groceries, I knew I was in the wrong neighborhood.
When I was looking for a house four years ago, an HOA was an absolute hard pass.
Has anyone ever been part of an HOA but the neighborhood still looked like shit? My friend had to pay dues to his HOA but his grass was yellowing CONSTANTLY and the only time they ever told him anything was when he let it overgrow so he mowed it once every few months.
Different HOA’s have different ways of addressing violations. Some are proactive and will have people regularly patrol the neighborhood looking for violations, while others are complaint driven where they will just address the violations submitted to them. It could be that no one complained about his lawn until it got too long. The dues likely are to maintain common landscaping and amenities, which would need to be funded regardless of how well people were complying with the covenants.
One question I have about HOAs and violations is what happens if the HOA doesn’t enforce the covenants for a long period of time? Like if the HOA board is really lazy and doesn’t followup on any complaints for years, are the covenants still enforceable? Like with this person and his lawn, after years of not saying anything about the yellow lawn, could they just decide to start enforcing that he needs to water his lawn so it stays green?
It’s a no from me, and I always check to make sure whenever I buy real estate (which is not all that often, thankfully) that I’m not (a) in a special metropolitan tax district, VERY IMPORTANT and (b) not in an HOA, which can have the same effect as a metropolitan tax district in that you can never be sure how much the fees will be in the future.
Now, I almost bought a place that was in one, but it was obvious from the other houses that the HOA was for maintenance of the tennis court, private park, and pool, and not overly involved on what people did to their individual houses. But in the end I decided not to, because in order to make sure the HOA does what you want, you have to get on the HOA board and I do enough unpaid work.
Horror stories from friends who got permission to paint, got the color approved, painted–and a neighbor objected so they had to either repaint, or pay some kind of fee EVERY DAY the house remained the wrong color. That is madness.