What's With All The HOAs in Austin? (gated, showing)

[Trainwreck20]

HOAs can be be good and bad, and as mentioned before, it depends a lot on the HOA. In the are that I lived for several years in north Austin, the 'HOA' fee was something like $5/year and had essentialliy no rules. The entire purpose was to track city rules and/or projects and lobby on behalf of the neighborhood. For examply, Riata apartments want to build a road that would connect to the neighborhood and allow them an additional exit from the general area of the apartments and access more directly to MoPac (via Duval). Great for Riata, but it would have been a nightmare for the residents. Most, if not all, the residents would have been totally unaware that this was going on, but the HOA commitee kept up with such things and helped to organize opposition to the project. I think many HOAs become so inward focused that they ignore some of the regional issues that might be significant for their members.

On the other extreme, not far from the neighborhood mentioned above (less than a mile, probably) was another HOA that had people that drove around in 'HOA enforcement' cars (they had a magnetic sign that said something like that) and they LOOKED for infractions. Okay, I may be crazy, but I think if no one notices or complains, then it ought to not be a big deal. These guys were measuring distances from sheds to fences, and looking for gardening projects that had not been approved.

[mrsengle]

On the other extreme, not far from the neighborhood mentioned above (less than a mile, probably) was another HOA that had people that drove around in 'HOA enforcement' cars (they had a magnetic sign that said something like that) and they LOOKED for infractions. Okay, I may be crazy, but I think if no one notices or complains, then it ought to not be a big deal. These guys were measuring distances from sheds to fences, and looking for gardening projects that had not been approved.

Speaking of, we received a little nastygram yesterday about leaving the garbage can in plain sight on a non pick-up day. Complete with a picture of the infraction, of course. And don't ya know that's going to drive property values down?? I've seen the drive-by folks on occassion, but they aren't identified with a magnetic sign or anything.

I think HOA's are a good thing, generally speaking. But I always get a kick out of driving through a neighborhood and seeing a house with some odd, barely neutral trim color - toned-down periwinkle on a dark beige brick house - someone is sending a little FU to the HOA.

[fil]

Check out the Georgia Flamingo story: Homeowners' Associations - Loathe Thy Neighbor; Beware $ 3,400 flamingos, $ 7,000 flowers--and angry homeowners' associations

My wife and I took turns at different time as the president of our HOA and it was so not worth it.

HOAs are good, if they are firm, fair, and consistent, something that is very rare and non-arbitrary.

This thread shows that personal taste plays a heavy role in HOAs.

[Bird Lover]

What is the range HOA fees in Round Rock, Cedar Park and Leander areas?
I will ne moving from Orange County, CA and hate the month $238! Is there any way to find out what the HOAs run before our hearts are set on a house?

[jwb123]

It should be disclosed in the listing.

Our's is $41 a month.

[austin-steve]

What is the range HOA fees in Round Rock, Cedar Park and Leander areas?

You won't find many HOAs that are more than $50/mo. Steiner Ranch is $640/yr. and that's about the highest of any around Austin. It includes trash pickup and sewer, plus Lake Austin access. Not a bad deal.

Teravista is about $500/yr. and it's a golf course community.

I've had many California buyers comment that they can't believe how low the HOA fees are in Austin compared to California. For example, I've been told that a development like Steiner Ranch in CA might have HOA fees of $250/mo or more. That's $2,400/yr that can be substrated from the Property Tax bite that you get in Texas compared to CA.

Steve

[Jazzedforhim]

Originally Posted by austin-steve

You won't find many HOAs that are more than $50/mo. Steiner Ranch is $640/yr. and that's about the highest of any around Austin. It includes trash pickup and sewer, plus Lake Austin access. Not a bad deal.

Teravista is about $500/yr. and it's a golf course community.

I've had many California buyers comment that they can't believe how low the HOA fees are in Austin compared to California. For example, I've been told that a development like Steiner Ranch in CA might have HOA fees of $250/mo or more. That's $2,400/yr that can be substrated from the Property Tax bite that you get in Texas compared to CA.

Steve

Yes, this was our feeling as well!

[jread]

I have mixed feelings on HOAs. They do help preserve property values (sometimes), but often they're just a bunch of nosey people who have nothing better to do than drive around and try to get people in trouble.

I know my HOA hates me. I went to the meeting and sided with the developer on the fact that narrow streets and parking on the streets has been proven to slow traffic down tremendously and prevent pedestrians from being run over. Everyone got into a big uproar because they think that parking on the street "looks bad".

[equus007]

I worked for Austin 311(AKA the people who enforce code) and know that HOA's help to keep down your taxes. Without them we would have to hire ten times as many code inspectors...who don't come cheap.

Personaly I don't like HOA's much because they tend to always want to go beyond what the city mandates for minimum standards. I have no problem reporting my neighbor to the inspector(and have) when they can't do the basic things needed to maintain their property but narcing out somebody because the gazeebo over their hot tub is a foot too tall seems petty.

[FromCalitoSteinerRanch]

Originally Posted by austin-steve

You won't find many HOAs that are more than $50/mo. Steiner Ranch is $640/yr. and that's about the highest of any around Austin. It includes trash pickup and sewer, plus Lake Austin access. Not a bad deal.

Teravista is about $500/yr. and it's a golf course community.

I've had many California buyers comment that they can't believe how low the HOA fees are in Austin compared to California. For example, I've been told that a development like Steiner Ranch in CA might have HOA fees of $250/mo or more. That's $2,400/yr that can be substrated from the Property Tax bite that you get in Texas compared to CA.

Steve

That is true about CA. We had a Townhouse, so note that our exterior, along with exterior landscaping was covered within the monthly dues, but in Rancho Santa Margarita, we had 3 monthly dues. We had our community HOA, then a City Wide HOA (for RSM lake, median landscaping, etc.) and we had a City Wide Rubbish "HOA", which was really just trash pickup.

Altogether we paid $220/month towards HOA's, and this was from 2001-2003. This was on top of "Mello-Roos" taxes that put us at .0203%, which meant we paid about $6K/year on 1750 sq. ft. with two common walls, but it was "home" to us. On a clear day, the view of the horizon of the Pacific Ocean was nice, but this was the first time I thought of that in at least two years.

By the way, luckilly Steiner has its own "grey water" processing, or the money per year spent on irrigation would be much more. Hopefully this year they saved even a few bucks more.