Is $85/month HOA dues expensive? (Cary: insurance, condos, townhouses)

[TechieMommy]

I live in a community of 300 single family homes in Cary (27519) and our HOA dues are $85/month. We have a clubhouse, swimming pool, tennis court and a children's play area. To use the clubhouse, we need to pay $125 per usage.

I'm curious to know what others out there in comparable communities pay?

[DaBears]

85 is inexpensive...where i live it is 104 and i know there are places where it is much higher (and we dont have a tennis court...)

[CalicoskiesNC]

I pay $36, have a pool, playground, no clubhouse.

[adlnc07]

$41/month here - clubhouse costs $50/day during the week and $75/day on weekends. In addition to the clubhouse we have a pool, tennis courts, walking trails, and playground equipment. It's an older community though, with 665 houses, townhouses and condos. $85 (and $104!) seems quite expensive to me - the most I ever paid was ~$70, and that was for a townhouse (so the fee covered snow removal, trash pickup, etc as well as the overall community amenities).

[dchz1]

We pay $672 a year for a pool, playground and common area's. We have 280 lots but only 170 are built on and are builder is in bankruptcy so we have to pick up the different. Before bankruptcy we paid about $350 a year because the builder was adding money to the fund.

[sll3454]

Look at your association's budget, reserve study, and financial statements. Then you can see where the money is being spent, and you'll be better able to answer your question than those of us without that information.

If you think money is being spent foolishly, tell your board of directors about your concerns and any ideas you have.

Sometimes dues are high because of expenses that were not provided for in earlier years of low dues. Sometimes dues are high because an association wants to have adequate reserves for future needs.

Your association may have higher insurance needs than some, more landscaping, or current or future erosion concerns.

Maybe a high percent of owners do not pay their dues regularly, or maybe your association pays for social events.

It's hard to compare the dues of different associations unless their needs are the same.

[WeLuvNC]

We pay about $50/month for pool (with summer life guarded hours), playground, tennis, common area mowing, electricity/lighting for common areas

[stan4]

Lol...ours are 1700 a year...and that's just for the park maintenance and general landscaping. There is no clubhouse, pool, etc.

[CHTransplant]

Ours are $250/quarter. We have a pool, clubhouse and playground, in a neighborhood of <70 houses.

[ma91pmh]

Bedford is 65 a month. A lot of it will depend on the size of the community. The smaller the community the less people to pay maintenance. In a big place like Bedford, Wakefield, Heritage etc there is an economy of scale in the costs don't go up linearly with the size of development. Some very small sub-divisions have very high HOA dues even with no facilities as just keeping the streets clean and lights on is expensive for a small number of homes