I've never once heard someone here in a America state that they sought out or preferred an HOA.
I have. When I lived in the Seattle area, I would ask people about why they preferred HOAs.
The conversations always went the same way, and mostly ended the same way. They brought up the unthinkable horrors of someone working on a car in their driveway ("What if the car was up on blocks for months?"), or leaving a trash can out too long, and their trump card, oddly enough, was asking the question about the Lovecraftian horror of suburban owners: "But what if your neighbor painted their house purple?" - as though this were self evidently the most awfully awful thing someone could ever do (I wouldn't paint my house purple, but I know of a number of them, and they don't bother me in the slightest). The conversations usually ended, after a few more questions, with some variant of "Really, HOAs are designed to inhibit people like you." Because I didn't see anything wrong with working on a car in your driveway, and I'm as likely as not to wander over with a couple beers and go BS about cars. I've done a lot of automotive maintenance in apartment parking lots that forbid it, because I had no better options.
There's this set of people who really value outside appearances on houses and properties, and react with horror to people who don't see the same problems they do. They tend to like HOAs.
I currently live somewhere that very much has no HOA. I'm sure they'd be utterly horrified by my old tractor and stuff that wanders the property, but that's why I don't have an HOA. :)
Sounds like freedom (tm) actually takes on the meaning of "the freedom to stop other people from doing things you don't like".
I wonder also if some of this is pure herd perception. Like, what if nobody personally cares that someone paints their house purple or works on their car. What if they just want to stop it because they think OTHER people won't like it and therefore won't put a bid on their house if and when they sell it. But in reality those buyers don't care either. Nobody cares, but everyone pretends they do because they think that everyone else does.
I don't mind someone working on their car in their driveway, I do it myself quite often. I would mind if a neighbor started using their residential yard as a car junkyard. I would mind if they're effectively running an auto repair shop out of their residential garage. Both of those then create hazards and harms to their neighbors around them.
I don't live in an area with an HOA currently. I do agree HOAs can often go extreme on code enforcement. However I do think people should respect each other and not just say "its my property I'll do whatever I want with it!" Because, yeah, sure, its your property, but your actions affect other people. You might feel painting your house pink with purple polka dots doesn't hurt anyone, but it does affect other people. You're not an island, you live in a community.
Since you're not living in a community with a HOA, how often have those situations with "rogue garages" and the likes cropped up? Seems to me they're selling fear and ideology more than battling real issues.
In my neighborhood? There's one just down my street. For a house with a two car garage and an alley he's got up to 8 cars at a time around his lot and parked out front. He even parks them in the narrow set backs between the houses halfway on his neighbor's land. It's kind of a pain how he practically stores broken down cars on the street that never move, they impede the street making it more cramped and less safe for me to bike around. The cars that never move turn into rat colonies. It leaks all kinds of chemicals into the alley. It seems like he often doesn't dispose of his fluids properly, I've filed a few complaints when I see it but nothing seems to ever get done. More motor oil down the storm drains into the creek and pond my kids play with I guess. He'll also let the pool get super nasty and then pump it all out into the alley every now and then. Sure is a great neighbor to have.
And that's just my street. Another neighborhood down the road has someone with rusting cars with busted windows parked in their front yard. Not the drive way, the actual yard. It's one of the first houses you drive by when you enter the neighborhood.
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I have. When I lived in the Seattle area, I would ask people about why they preferred HOAs.
The conversations always went the same way, and mostly ended the same way. They brought up the unthinkable horrors of someone working on a car in their driveway ("What if the car was up on blocks for months?"), or leaving a trash can out too long, and their trump card, oddly enough, was asking the question about the Lovecraftian horror of suburban owners: "But what if your neighbor painted their house purple?" - as though this were self evidently the most awfully awful thing someone could ever do (I wouldn't paint my house purple, but I know of a number of them, and they don't bother me in the slightest). The conversations usually ended, after a few more questions, with some variant of "Really, HOAs are designed to inhibit people like you." Because I didn't see anything wrong with working on a car in your driveway, and I'm as likely as not to wander over with a couple beers and go BS about cars. I've done a lot of automotive maintenance in apartment parking lots that forbid it, because I had no better options.
There's this set of people who really value outside appearances on houses and properties, and react with horror to people who don't see the same problems they do. They tend to like HOAs.
I currently live somewhere that very much has no HOA. I'm sure they'd be utterly horrified by my old tractor and stuff that wanders the property, but that's why I don't have an HOA. :)
Sounds like freedom (tm) actually takes on the meaning of "the freedom to stop other people from doing things you don't like".
I wonder also if some of this is pure herd perception. Like, what if nobody personally cares that someone paints their house purple or works on their car. What if they just want to stop it because they think OTHER people won't like it and therefore won't put a bid on their house if and when they sell it. But in reality those buyers don't care either. Nobody cares, but everyone pretends they do because they think that everyone else does.
I don't mind someone working on their car in their driveway, I do it myself quite often. I would mind if a neighbor started using their residential yard as a car junkyard. I would mind if they're effectively running an auto repair shop out of their residential garage. Both of those then create hazards and harms to their neighbors around them.
I don't live in an area with an HOA currently. I do agree HOAs can often go extreme on code enforcement. However I do think people should respect each other and not just say "its my property I'll do whatever I want with it!" Because, yeah, sure, its your property, but your actions affect other people. You might feel painting your house pink with purple polka dots doesn't hurt anyone, but it does affect other people. You're not an island, you live in a community.
Since you're not living in a community with a HOA, how often have those situations with "rogue garages" and the likes cropped up? Seems to me they're selling fear and ideology more than battling real issues.
In my neighborhood? There's one just down my street. For a house with a two car garage and an alley he's got up to 8 cars at a time around his lot and parked out front. He even parks them in the narrow set backs between the houses halfway on his neighbor's land. It's kind of a pain how he practically stores broken down cars on the street that never move, they impede the street making it more cramped and less safe for me to bike around. The cars that never move turn into rat colonies. It leaks all kinds of chemicals into the alley. It seems like he often doesn't dispose of his fluids properly, I've filed a few complaints when I see it but nothing seems to ever get done. More motor oil down the storm drains into the creek and pond my kids play with I guess. He'll also let the pool get super nasty and then pump it all out into the alley every now and then. Sure is a great neighbor to have.
And that's just my street. Another neighborhood down the road has someone with rusting cars with busted windows parked in their front yard. Not the drive way, the actual yard. It's one of the first houses you drive by when you enter the neighborhood.
I live in Seattle, but I guess I'm lucky enough to have never encountered anyone like that.