Does anyone out there really like HOA's (Home Owner Associations)?

[Siggy20]

Good thread and this is something we will look at when eventually buying a house in your lovely state.

Our neighborhood has a HOA and they are pretty good. Not really restrictive and they do a good job keeping up the common areas. They also keep the residents informed if there is a burglary, traffic issues, house issues, etc. Everyone keeps their houses pretty well maintained although a few people push the limit with cluncker cars up on blocks for long periods of time (ie a year).

[hilgi]

Originally Posted by matt22

Land of the free means land of the free, isn't that what the terrorists hate us for? When you live in an HOA, you pay to give up your rights, makes not sense to me and it is a slap in the face of our armed forces.

HOAs are voluntary contracts, they are as American as Apple Pie!

[Ablebodied]

I hate HOA's. No wonder the legislature had to take power away from them earlier in the year. I was fortunate enough to buy a new home where now the HOA will never get off the ground. I hear the stories of friends where people heading up their HOA who never have had power in their lives have gone power crazy. Remember the news story last year where a couple was being pressured out of their complex from a neigbor living below them because of their two year old? The young couple had even placed mattresses on their downstairs floor to try to keep the baby's noise muffled. It was pure harassment and that neighbor should have moved somewhere there are no kids allowed. But behind the power of the HOA he was able to complain and keep pressure on this young couple.

If you came to my neighborhood you would think there is a HOA but there isn't, people want to keep their neighborhood nice. I think most people are reasonable in neighborhoods where people have invested a large amount of money in a property. If one truck bothers you or a lighter paint on one house makes you irate, you need to buy a few acres of land and build away from people period. The origin of Hoas weren't good in the first place and were born out of racism. If you ever saw A Raisin in the Sun with Sidney Portier, it was the head of the HOA that came to the Portier character and offered to buy the family out to keep blacks out of the neighborhood. This was the culture of the HOA community. As far as property values, during the past years the values in HOA neighborhoods reflected the same housing climate in the rest of the world.

Here is one of the early covenants:

"No part of said property hereby conveyed shall ever be used or occupied by any Hebrew or by any person of the Ethiopian, Malay or any Asiatic race"

[hilgi]

Originally Posted by Ablebodied

Here is one of the early covenants:

"No part of said property hereby conveyed shall ever be used or occupied by any Hebrew or by any person of the Ethiopian, Malay or any Asiatic race"

Source please.

[Considering Coming Back]

Originally Posted by hilgi

Source please.

Covenants like that are real, but they aren't the same thing as HOAs (and clearly not enforceable now). The neighborhood I grew up in was built with a covenant.

[hilgi]

Originally Posted by Considering Coming Back

Covenants like that are real, but they aren't the same thing as HOAs (and clearly not enforceable now). The neighborhood I grew up in was built with a covenant.

So these must be really old?

[Considering Coming Back]

Originally Posted by hilgi

So these must be really old?

The housing portion of the Civil Rights Act made the practice illegal.

[kevmac1]

Originally Posted by Ablebodied

It was pure harassment and that neighbor should have moved somewhere there are no kids allowed.

I'm pretty sure that, save for a designated Senior Living Community, there is no such thing as a neighborhood (or especially an apartment/townhouse complex) where kids are not allowed..at least not since the 1988 amendments to the federal Fair Housing Act.