I’ll never forget the instructor in the class I had to take to get a gun permit. He was talking about guns in homes, etc. and mentioned he lived in a condo. “Kind of like socialism” he said with a weary expression.
Condos and HOAs are petri dishes for neighborhood tyrannies. If you get decent, level-headed people in management, fine. If you get liberal busybodies who have never had power before, watch out. They will want to spend your money and micromanage your use of your own property. The stories I’ve heard from people have convinced me to avoid them.
Valid - but there horror stories the other way too...people painting their houses pink and purple, or keeping 4-5 cars on the yard, etc - the kind of thing that can also drain 10s of thousands of dollars from your home equity. It's a case by case thing for me.