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On average, do homes in Private Communities with uniformed appearances and all priced about the same sell faster or have better resale value than a similar style home in a public/non-private community with homes of different styles and varied price range?
This is a general question...so please no responses asking for specific detailed data, such as square footage, property taxes, location, etc.
I think the terms "public" and "private" are going to cause some confusion. It may be good to clarify what you mean. Do you mean "planned" communities (usually newer) of homes all built a the same time by the same developer, versus unplanned (usually older) communities of mixed size and age? Or do you mean "gated" communities that are closed to the public, versus those that are not gated? Or do you mean something else?
Every market is very different and nobody can provide a meaningful answer to this question. Some markets are over-saturated with newer cookie-cutter developments and others have relatively few.
Neighborhoods in the two types of configurations that you mention often have a very different set of selling points. For example, older and less uniform neighborhoods (I guess 'public' in your terminology) are often more centrally located. Impossible to compare.
I think this probably varies depending on the area. I can tell you what I observed in the town where I bought and the town where I'm selling, however.
In both those areas, the planned communities seem to have the faster sales. From what I've observed, there are two factors in play.
In Williamsburg, the reason the non-HOA neighborhoods didn't seem to sell as quickly was often about avoiding noisy parties, neighbors with a lot of junky cars on their lawn, that sort of thing. At least, so I'm told. One neighborhood in particular had an interesting challenge. This was an area with older but beautiful large homes. Then two of the houses were bought by halfway houses. The first one didn't affect the neighborhood that much, but after a second house in the same neighborhood was also turned into a halfway house the sale of other homes nearby slowed to a snail's pace.
In northern VA (or at least the part when we're selling) it seems to be mostly about the HOA amenities. Houses in the HOA communities where we are selling sell quickly because the HOAs are a good deal. For $60 to $70 per month you get pools, tennis, gyms, playgrounds, meeting rooms, and sometimes even funny little perks like driveway topcoats. If there's a heavy snow, the HOA streets get plowed right away and other neighborhoods might way a few days. That might not sound like a big deal but to some people it really is. There are also some very nice homes that were built in the area before the HOAs arrived. They don't sell as quickly. It might be because they're older, but I suspect the attraction of the HOA amenities is the real reason.
I suspect "private" is being used here as a code word. The extreme anti-HOA people refer to HOAs as "private government." In their world this is pejorative.
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