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I live in Australia and there is a real shortage of gated communities compared to the US. In Australia all gated communities are very exclusive and are mostly centered around golf and country clubs. There are a few security communities for privacy but most are lifestyle communities. Recently I visited a hotel in a gated community and everything was beautiful. It was well maintained and very walkable. I love the idea of taking the buggy down to the local shops or walking a few minutes to the golf course. Everything about these communities seem perfect to me...
Never. People who live in gated communities tend to think the rest of the city is nothing but crime. It's paranoia. There's tons of neighbourhoods across the country that are not gated and are really safe. Gimme a nice older neighbourhood with trees everywhere, where all the houses look different and where there's actual charm and character, please. Where the majority of the people aren't 55+ WASPs and soccer moms.
No. I would imagine that a gated community is ruled by an iron fisted HOA that makes the third reich look benevolent and tolerant, I really don't want to be fined for planting unapproved dusty millers and hostas.
Sure, I'd live in one if the CCR's were something I could tolerate. HOA rules vary a lot in what they restrict. Some CCR's I can't live with, but some allow me to do what I want to do and restrict my neighbors from doing things I don't want to live next to; like put in a pig farm. I don't need any pigs, so that restriction doesn't affect me. I don't want to live next to a pig farm, so that restriction suits me just fine. People who want to raise pigs simply have to buy elsewhere.
My family is just now in escrow in a tourist area. We did not buy in a gated community, but would have if we had found a house to suit us. In that area, the gates are in areas where the tourists want to wander around looking at scenery. They drive around the lake and then decide to take a cruise through the pretty mountains.
There are a lot of tourists and I would be just as happy to not have a steady stream of out-of-towners driving by in a "let's see what is down this road" mode. For some reason, City people can't seem to be able to tell the difference between a country road and a driveway. They drive up driveways and end up in people's front yards. Just because you can't see that "lane" end up at someone's garage (or even see the house) does not mean that narrow lane with the mailbox at the end is a public road.
Many roads near the lake have prominent signs that say "no lake access". To pay for and install a sign indicates that the large number of tourists wandering around in residential areas get to be a nuisance.
1) HOA. Don't tell me where I can park my cars, what color to paint my door, and how my mailbox needs to look, thanks. Jeez, bland and mindless conformity is not part of my makeup. What's more, those HOA communities don't even realize how quickly they begin to look dated, chiefly because they insist on not changing. So that attempt to uphold property values over time is counterproductive. Oh, and another thing. My wife and I bought our old home and with little more than paint, sweat and repeated trips to Home Depot turned into a property on the historic register. The result is a much more attractive house than you can find in any of those generic contractor plan books.
2) You mean every time I invite a friend, a family member, or anyone else, they have to check in with a Rent A Cop at the front? What a tremendous pain in the ass that is for everyone.
3) Gated communities wind up feeling as if they are not part of the larger community, walled off as they are in their little encampment.
4) The entire point of a gated community is security. But with friends who live in them, they have to deal with crime as much as the people who live outside. Because the dirty little secret of those places isn't that most crime isn't committed by some thug somewhere, but rather by that kid down the street who wants some drug money.
5) I refuse to live life afraid of the world. My wife and I lived in a gentrifying neighborhood for 15 years. Volunteered to coach little league baseball at the park down the street. Went to community meetings. Said 'Hello' to people of all descriptions walking past on the sidewalk. Never had an incident. Moved to our toney suburb and it wasn't three weeks before some bratty teenager smacked our mailbox with a baseball bat.
Too Snobby, Those people were way too good for my wife and I
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Yes!
Never Again
