[C. Edmund Wright]

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.

[Mr Rogers]

When people want to live in a nice neighborhood cheek-to-cheek, an HOA can help. The HOA can enforce rules that help everyone’s property values.

I was in one where there was no common property & the homes were spread out. After 6 years of HOA fights, we voted to disband the HOA by an 85:15 margin.

[southern rock]

but there horror stories the other way too...people painting their houses pink and purple, or keeping 4-5 cars on the yard, etc

That's private property for you. Are you against the concept?

- the kind of thing that can also drain 10s of thousands of dollars from your home equity

Sorry, but the constitution doesn't mention your home equity.

[driftdiver]

Pink houses and 5 cars parked on the cars are addressable by the city or county in most places. You don’t need an hoa to do it.

[The Duke]

We lived for 20+ years in an HOA condo community in Central Florida. When we had issues with the way the community was going we found an easy way to address the issue - which was to run for office in the HOA, get elected, and "take over". Not only did we stop having issues with the HOA, but we were able to improve everyone's life and increase property values dramatically.

As an example, before getting involved we were starting to have trouble with trespassers at the pools and "gang-like" activity. Once we got into office we got high fences with keyed locks installed at all the pools and tennis courts, and hired a security service to patrol the property.

Now that I think of it, I bet this would work at the national level as well. The secret is to GET INVOLVED.