When you are in the city the laws there are plenty sufficient (and in some cities draconian), when you are in a development outside the city limits I can almost understand a very limited type of HOA that mimics the laws missing by not being in the city.
You know for things like no cars up on blocks in the front yard for more than a year.
The grass can't be over taller than the back of Holstein cow.
Loud music over 95 db after 12 midnight must be old time rock & roll.
You know the important things. Other than that HOAs are evil!
And are shunned by most people and therefore are a detriment to property values not the other way around. In the country an HOA might increase values, not by anything intrinsic to there being an HOA, but by the fact you can see the water buffalo before it jumps in the road in front of you because the grass has been cut short.
No kidding.
) I grew up in suburban neighborhood in one and it was a nightmare. You had to get permission from every single person who can see it if you want to cut down a tree. Thing is, here in NC we get a lot of hurricanes on a regular basis and all that great wind that comes with it. Trees have a tendency of making your house go snap, crackle, pop when they go horizontal. I remember my parents having such a difficult time getting everyone to sign off (literally) for permission to have a tree cut down that was leaning over heavily close to our house. Stupid, stupid. I should make a time-elapse map of my life. It'll show me moving from heavily-populated areas to less-populated areas, all for the better IMO. Downstate New York, then to a large suburb in NC, then to a smaller suburb, then to a smaller city. After that, I want to buy a house out in the country. No neighborhood, no HOAs.
