Its a private association formed when a residential subdivision is developed. It sets up rules that the owners must follow in maintaining their homes. No junk in your front lawn. You might need to get prior approval for changing the outside of the house. Often times there is a monthly fee that goes towards landscaping or common amenities like pools. You agree to these terms when you acquire the home and subsequent buyers must do so also. After most of the homes are sold, the homeowners elect a board to run the association. Sometimes the members of the boards can be power hungry and vindictive. The homeowners can all vote to end the association at some point so older single family homes tend not to be under an HOA.
Homeowner association. They tell you the color you can paint your house, if your mailbox has a chip in the paint they can fine you and if you don't pay lose your house, a major story where a proud military veteran wasn't allowed to fly an American flag, someone got in trouble over the color of their swing set they bought for their kids, etc.. You pay a monthly fee to them. Some provide services like a pool, clubhouse, some are gated, etc... Some like them, some don't like... Probably depends on the community but some are over reaching. Some even try to tell people it's illegal to have satellite television service too, because they think the dishes look ugly but the Over-the-Air-Reception Devices (OTARD) law overrides that.
I'm not really a huge fan of HOA's personally, but maybe if I was a millionaire with a mansion some are nice, but some HOAs are just regular people with like 100K home values. So not only do you have the city telling you what you can do with your property, you have people who couldn't get elected to a real city government telling you what you are allowed to do with your property on top of what the city and state says.
Right now the only HOA I think I'd want to live at is the Golden Oaks one, which is a real estate development at the Walt Disney Resort, but not rich enough yet for that... Can dream I guess haha. One of the Walmart executives has a house there though, so super wealthy people. I think a lot of it is just vacation homes, but I'd like it year around. But only because of the location and being a huge Disney fan, otherwise I hate HOAs in general but maybe some other areas I might be a fan but in general I rather live without one... So many HOA horror stories online. but if I was some millionaire, living in a gated community I think I'd feel safer.
>I'm not really a huge fan of HOA's personally, but maybe if I was a millionaire with a mansion some are nice, but some HOAs are just regular people with like 100K home values.
I would worry more about neighbors who don't keep up their property in a neighborhood of cheaper homes than a neighborhood of millionaires.
