Fort Collins Neighborhoods without HOA? (for sale, condos, big house)

[elkoda]

Hi. Continuing on my research of the FC area. Are there many neighborhoods that do not have a HOA? What are the names of those neighborhoods or the location of them?

[xeric]

Here's a list of some neighborhoods that I either know or don't think have HOAs. Note that some may have developer covenants written into the deed, but without an HOA these will not change, can only be enforced via a lawsuit from neighbors, and are usually pretty minimal.

Old Town (although there are some extra city rules applied to historical areas)
South College Heights
Brown's Farm
University Acres
Rossborough
Quail Hollow

I'm sure there are a lot more than these but I haven't had cause to research it for awhile. One trick I learned (if you are in town) is to look for TV antennas on the roofs. If multiple houses have them, it's probably a non-HOA, non-covenant-controlled neighborhood. What most people don't know is that federal law bans covenants that don't let you put up a normal TV antenna (presumably to allow homeowners that can't afford cable to still have access to local media).

[barefootmeg]

Any house throughout the entire city, not just in Old Town, fall under historic review if they are 50 years old or older. Historic review isn't very rigorous, though. We live in Old Town and had our house remodeled a few years back. Getting our changes passed through historic review was equivalent to sneezing. I suppose our contractor knew what he was doing. There are some rules about what you can build in Old Town, but given what people have gotten away with, the rules obviously aren't very stringent and you can always ask for an exemption to the rules.

As far as neighborhoods without HOAs, for the most part any neighborhood that falls into the historic review age range isn't going to have an HOA with only a couple exceptions. HOA's don't seem to have gained popularity until more recently. So you're more likely to find HOA's south of Drake (or maybe south of Horsetooth) than you are to the north - although fringe building all over is more likely to have HOAs than something closer to Old Town.

[xeric]

As somebody who has been to Europe and Asia (not to mention Santa Fe, Mexico, and the eastern US), the notion of a 50 year old house being considered historic is somewhat amusing to me. But those historic property property rules only apply to revisions requiring a building permit. At least that's the case for now. But I get the impression that there are a lot of old town residents who wish they did have an HOA controlling their neighborhoods. They can't do it unless every homeowner in the neighborhood agrees and so they look to the city to implement restrictions.

[elkoda]

Mike - thanks for the list of neighborhoods and that is interesting about the tv antennas... I've been trying to learn as much as possible about the neighborhoods before our trip this coming week. Only a couple neighborhoods stand out to me as I think of our last trip. I'm somewhat overwhelmed with the data, looking at the schools and neighborhoods and have decided to stop looking until we get there and get another feel of the town. I am interested in why the popularity of HOAs? Mainly because where we live, this is not popular. Obviously, since we live in the city of Chicago, HOAs do not exist for single family homes, only for attached units (condos, duplex, row houses, etc.)

Barefootmeg - Thanks for your helpful information about Old Town in this post and others I've posted. We loved that neighborhood on our last visit and we are drawn to the architecture that would be of historic review. I do agree with xeric in that 50 years seems a bit 'new' to me as we've lived in homes closer to 100 years old or older. I've noticed some new construction that brings back the craftsmen home/bungalow that we love so dearly. The thing is, we'd love to have a little more space/land than we have here in the city. To find the right mix of what we like and want will be the challenge. We are fans of 'the not so big house' and most of the newer homes I find for sale in the southern/south eastern part of town feel so 'big' to us.
Why do residents prefer HOA if what xeric's impressions are true?