What's With All The HOAs in Austin? (Round Rock, Leander: real estate, house)

[aakridge]

I've never seen so many HOAs. Granted, I'm pretty young, but MAN! I have found some homes in Round Rock that aren't HOA, but there are way more HOA homes than not? Is my observation incorrect?

[austin-steve]

HOA's became much more prevelany in Austin starting in the 1990s.

They are a must in good neighborhoods, though they can be militant with enforcement sometimes.

Downside, like where I live in an older, uncontrolled area, is some of my neighbors let their homes run down and it makes the area look bad. My only recourse is to personally sue, which I'm not about to do. It's one of the reasons I'm building a new home in a new neighborhood with an HOA, so I know my neighbors will be held accountable by a third party HOA Management company.

Also, homes/neighborhood I own in Leander would have gone completely down the tubes during the 2001-2005 real estate downturn were it not for diligent and strict enforecement by the HOA.
Steve

[fil]

HOAs and gated communties are prevalent in Atlanta as well...get use to them bars kid (Back to the Future quote).

I live in an old, established neighborhood and people just know better than to mess with the HOA so they tend to do the right thing.

I miss seeing laundry machines on people's porches in Georgia, not.

[achtungpv]

Not all HOA's are good. I would ask around about how tough they are at enforcing the subdivision rules. I moved from a new neighborhood a year ago and that HOA did NOTHING. Yards were completely overgrown, architectural standards weren't enforced, etc.

[TX-Griff]

Originally Posted by aakridge

I've never seen so many HOAs. Granted, I'm pretty young, but MAN! I have found some homes in Round Rock that aren't HOA, but there are way more HOA homes than not? Is my observation incorrect?

I don't know-know for sure, but I'll bet you're right.

As for "what's with all the HOA's in Austin?"... I think it's a function of Austin seeing --and learning from other cities-- what happens when uncontrolled urban sprawl happens... you know, when anyone can do anything w/ their property?

I also think a lot of the original areas that attracted new residents saw that having a self-governing HOA was a whole lot easier than trying to govern 100, or a 1,000, or 10,000 different "pocket" communities.

TX-Griff

[mimimomx3]

I think a HOA is important in a new neighborhood to encourage homeowners (some of whom may be young and/or never owned a home) to keep up with their property. I think it serves to educate and encourage people to keep up their property value. In more established or expensive neighborhoods, your property tax bill (and not a HOA) forces you to take care of your property and not paint it purple with a windmill in the front yard!

[TX-Griff]

Originally Posted by mimimomx3

I think a HOA is important in a new neighborhood to encourage homeowners (some of whom may be young and/or never owned a home) to keep up with their property. I think it serves to educate and encourage people to keep up their property value. In more established or expensive neighborhoods, your property tax bill (and not a HOA) forces you to take care of your property and not paint it purple with a windmill in the front yard!

That's funny... and soooooo true.

I was already living down here when my house in New Haven sold, so I never even met the new owners. All I knew of them was they were in their late-30s, had a blended family w/ four kidlets and wanted to turn my two-family home back into a single family home.

About a year after it was sold I went back (I still have family there, on the same street I lived on) and drove past my old residence... OMG!!!!!!

It was AWFUL... they'd trashed up the front yard with some pretty grotesque gardening choices (a 12' bamboo cluster in the middle of the lawn and lines of "interesting" plants set out in rows, like corn, only uglier and less tended) and "things." I swear on a stack of bibles, there were TWO windmills and a 10' x 10' homemade sandbox (uncovered... guess what ELSE it was for the neighborhood cats... ugh!) amongst a dozen or so other cutesy-arty "things."

The detached single car garage in the backyard was a charred ruin (turned out hubby tried to kill wifey and wound up burning down the garage instead) that the residents weren't going to rebuild (or even clear out), and the front porch looked like a bad eBay buying spree was in process... mattresses, chairs, an antique china hutch and several large (like LARGE... 3' & 4' tall things) plastic kid's yard toys were jammed onto it. You couldn't fully open the door and the mailman had insisted they install a mailbox on the outside of the PORCH so he didn't have to traverse that minefield!

I stopped in to see one of my former next-door neighbors and it was all she could do to NOT wring m'neck for "selling to those cretins." Yikes.

So yeah... I like having a HOA and allllllll of their restrictive convenants... it's like having a big brother you can call when someone gets outta hand.


TX Griff

[turnerfamily]

It sounds like we're judging by appearance a little too much here

[love roses]

Some people lack pride of ownership for whatever reason, so I think HOA's can be helpful in that regard. In the old neighborhood next to ours, there is a house with a wraparound porch loaded to the gills with all sorts of junk. Of course, there is no HOA in that neighborhood, but code enforcement did have to get involved because it was so bad. The people aren't bad people, but there is obviously a pack rat issue with some people (I say this, as my mother is a big culprit)

[mimimomx3]

Originally Posted by TX-Griff

That's funny... and soooooo true.

I was already living down here when my house in New Haven sold, so I never even met the new owners. All I knew of them was they were in their late-30s, had a blended family w/ four kidlets and wanted to turn my two-family home back into a single family home.

About a year after it was sold I went back (I still have family there, on the same street I lived on) and drove past my old residence... OMG!!!!!!

It was AWFUL... they'd trashed up the front yard with some pretty grotesque gardening choices (a 12' bamboo cluster in the middle of the lawn and lines of "interesting" plants set out in rows, like corn, only uglier and less tended) and "things." I swear on a stack of bibles, there were TWO windmills and a 10' x 10' homemade sandbox (uncovered... guess what ELSE it was for the neighborhood cats... ugh!) amongst a dozen or so other cutesy-arty "things."

The detached single car garage in the backyard was a charred ruin (turned out hubby tried to kill wifey and wound up burning down the garage instead) that the residents weren't going to rebuild (or even clear out), and the front porch looked like a bad eBay buying spree was in process... mattresses, chairs, an antique china hutch and several large (like LARGE... 3' & 4' tall things) plastic kid's yard toys were jammed onto it. You couldn't fully open the door and the mailman had insisted they install a mailbox on the outside of the PORCH so he didn't have to traverse that minefield!

I stopped in to see one of my former next-door neighbors and it was all she could do to NOT wring m'neck for "selling to those cretins." Yikes.

So yeah... I like having a HOA and allllllll of their restrictive convenants... it's like having a big brother you can call when someone gets outta hand.


TX Griff

I'm sure they're perfectly nice people....who feel the need to share their artistic ideas with the world!