Homeowners Associations

I hate homeowners associations. So does everyone else I've ever met. I have not ever met one person who thinks they are a good idea. So how is it that they are still in existence?

For us, we haven't been able to buy a house in a neighborhood without a HOA. It seems that if you want to escape a HOA, you have to buy a fixer-upper or buy in a really upscale, well established neighborhood, neither of which is something we desire. We have no idea how to fix up a house that needs repairs and we can't afford to buy in a well-established neighborhood. So we bought a house here and of course, we have a wretched HOA to deal with yet again.

And really, what do they do with all that money? In our most recent neighborhood, we paid dues that were about $75/month. There were more than 1500 homes in our neighborhood, so if each homeowner was paying those dues, that HOA was bringing in over $100,000/month! Yet our parks were still dirty with broken swings and such, and I swear they spent all their money on sending out flyers telling us that we left our garbage can out 15 minutes too long on garbage day. It seems with that amount of money, the neighborhood should have been really nice and very clean. Not to mention, some HOA's have cable or water or something wrapped up the fees, but this one didn't. There was no community pool to keep up or community center to air condition either.

Anyway, that's my gripe for the day. Not that we've had any problems with our current HOA, because we haven't, but I still hate them. I know of a HOA that won't let the residents own pets. They can't own a dog in their own home on their own property because of their HOA. How dumb is that?