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We live in Chapel Hill and belong to a community pool in the area, but it's not an HOA neighborhood pool. You buy a membership and pay annual dues. You can drop it if you decide to.
poppydog, would you mind giving me the name of the community pool you use in Chapel Hill and do you know if in addition to a swim team do they have a water polo team?
No water polo at the kid level that I'm aware of in Chapel Hill. UNC has a team, though. This is probably a more helpful link than the name of my pool. It's all the pools in the Chapel Hill summer swim league: Chapel Hill Summer Swim League : Member Clubs
There's a pool in our development. I pay $720 in HOA fees for that and common area maintenance. Not real busy when I have gone and the few kids I run into are very well behaved. My father had a pool at the house when I grew up and it was great. Even better he maintained it. No way I would want to deal with the hassle of a pool. Community pool? Eyes closed under water and keep your mouth closed.
I have always heard about the hassles of maintaining a pool and when we finally bought a house with one, we found out that it was not a hassle at all. It's actually pretty easy.
Upthread - I would love to hear MikeJaquish's thoughts on how private pools affect the buyer pool for a house there.
I've been very happy with our neighborhood pool for the 10 years we've been here. It is rolled into the HOA fees, and the neighborhood is fairly large, and for what we get for the fees (pool, tennis, volleyball, trails, playgrounds, etc.), it is very reasonable. We'd checked out some neighborhoods that had pools that we not part of the HOA and had separate fees. The fees for the 3 months of pool alone were more than I pay for HOA fees for an entire year. And then they still had HOA fees on top of that, which weren't that much less than what I paid for ours with much more amenities.
We get to ours a couple of times a week usually. Our visits involve a short drive within the neighborhood, and I'm sure if we lived across from the pool we'd use much more. If we had to drive a few miles to a club pool somewhere, I doubt we'd use nearly as much.
It's really been great in recent years as our kid had gotten older and more independent. He's nearly always got kids he knows at the pool when we visit.
I grew up with a pool in the midwest, but have never had to maintain it myself. I would definitely buy a home with a pool here if I found one, but yes they seem to be less common than you'd expect given the weather. I think it has a lot to do with the neighborhood pools.
Our neighborhood pool doesn't have a swim team and is less busy than most. It's really, really nice. My son loves being able to show up and play with neighborhood kids that are there and there always seems to be someone around.
One thing I miss is night swimming. And the privacy, and just hanging out around the pool. However my kids drive me crazy around my the pool at my parents' house. The worry is always there and we have to really watch them. Tradeoffs!
there are more people who don't want a pool on their property than do.
Now, as noted, given the low % of homes with them, then they may sell just fine these days. Until 2008 they didn't, and given the number of nasty growth tanks they often became during the recession, they hurt several short sales/foreclosures.
There is a definitely a short supply, so even with a short list of bidders I would think they would sell okay. If 1/100 houses have a pool, and 1/80 buyers wants one, then it's a seller's market, I guess. A house we looked at a week ago the day it hit the market, that I thought was over-priced in comparison to recent comps in that neighborhood went contingent today. It did have a very nice pool though.
There is a least one cesspool of a pool still sitting on the market currently that I have seen recently. I suspect the pump hasn't run in at least a year. The water was so funky under the pool cover that you couldn't see far enough in to even tell the condition of the pool :-(
there are more people who don't want a pool on their property than do.
Now, as noted, given the low % of homes with them, then they may sell just fine these days. Until 2008 they didn't, and given the number of nasty growth tanks they often became during the recession, they hurt several short sales/foreclosures.
Thx for the post. That is what I thought.
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